Release the Bard
“We do generative AI as well!” That’s how the Google Bard announcement sounded. It’s the Google answer to ChatGPT. Likely, Google had its own timeline for release and how it would integrate the offering into Google products — probably an update to Google Assistant presented at I/O in May 2023 — but the market reception of Open AI’s technology caused the “Code Red” at Google to sound.
Now, the Bard announcement is exciting but people want to see it in action. Will it work as well or better? “Trusted external testers” will find out. They might be under confidentiality agreements so we might not actually see a demo for some time.
Generative AI is still looking for applications and use cases that can exdtract value. They are there, but we’re right now like shovel-using coal miners being offered excavators without knowing what they do. The tools and infrastructure to make the most of them still needs to be put in place. Like Doc Brown with a DeLorean in the 1800s.
I’m excited for Bard and other tools to be released. It will drive down costs of the services and the competitive will foster improvements. It also means that the true value isn’t in the services themselves but in the applications that will come out of them.
