Google's competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT may appear as soon as next week. The company will hold an event in Paris on Wednesday, Feb. 8, where it will discuss plans for its search engine.
The company isn’t revealing much about the event. The description merely says: “We're reimagining how people search for, explore and interact with information, making it more natural and intuitive than ever before to find what you need. Join us to learn how we're opening up greater access to information for people everywhere, through Search, Maps, and beyond.”
It’s possible the event could focus more on Google’s conventional products, rather than AI. However, in an earnings call on Thursday, CEO Sundar Pichai said Google is preparing to unleash its AI programs to the public.
“Very soon, people will be able to interact directly with our newest, most powerful language models as a companion to Search in experimental and innovative ways. Stay tuned,” he said.
Back in 2021, Google debuted its own ChatGPT-like program in LaMDA, which is designed to hold human-like conversations. The program was smart enough that one Google engineer was convinced it had developed sentience. But at the time, LaMDA was still a prototype that Google had yet to widely release.
That’s set to change. During the earnings call, Pichai said: “In the coming weeks and months, we'll make these language models available, starting with LaMDA so that people can engage directly with them.”
According to CNBC, Google engineers have already been testing a program that works similar to ChatGPT called “Apprentice Bard,” which is based on LaMDA. One key difference is that Apprentice Bard can answer questions on the latest topics. In contrast, ChatGPT’s knowledge has been limited to information up to 2021.
Google may have originally held back on releasing LaMDA over concerns it would supply inaccurate information or possibly undermine its ad business. But it now looks like the company is trying to counter the rise of ChatGPT, which may be the fastest growing app of all time.
Pichai added: “We'll pursue this work boldly but with a deep sense of responsibility with our AI principles and the highest standards of information integrity at the core of all our work.”
Google’s event will be live streamed on YouTube at 8:30 a.m. EST on Feb. 8.