Google’s Bard: The AI Chatbot Competitor

This article was last updated on July 13, 2023

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Google’s answer to ChatGPT now available in the Netherlands

Google has launched its competitor to ChatGPT in Europe, including the Netherlands. The introduction of ‘Bard’ was initially delayed due to concerns raised by the Irish privacy watchdog. Bard, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is an advanced text generator powered by a language model. Users ask questions, and Bard predicts the most likely answer. The technology has reached a level of sophistication where the generated texts are highly convincing. However, chatbots like Bard also suffer from issues known as ‘hallucinating,’ where they produce inaccurate information.

Forty supported languages and new features

Google’s Jack Krawczyk, responsible for developing Bard, described this launch as the “largest rollout to date.” Bard supports forty languages and has the capability to speak out answers. While the NOS (Dutch Broadcasting Foundation) requested access to Bard before its release, they were unable to do so. In the future, Bard will also be able to interact with images. Krawczyk provided an example where users could ask Bard to “find the right words to thank my loved ones for giving me a bicycle,” suggesting that Bard might even outperform humans when it comes to expressing gratitude. Nevertheless, a Google spokesperson downplayed this possibility and cited examples where Bard could facilitate communication between professionals, such as plumbers, and their customers.

Google faced delays in launching its chatbot in Europe due to concerns expressed by the Irish Data Protection Commission. As Google’s EU headquarters are based in Ireland, the commission oversees the company’s compliance with EU privacy regulations. Details of the conversations between Google and the Irish regulator remain undisclosed. Krawczyk mentioned that there is a “shared understanding” between the two parties and that talks will continue even after the launch of Bard.

Competition with ChatGPT

For several months, Google has faced pressure due to the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. When ChatGPT was launched at the end of last year, it quickly gained significant attention. However, Google did not have an immediate alternative despite working on their chatbot for years.

This has put Google in direct competition with ChatGPT and Microsoft, which has integrated similar technology into its search engine, Bing. These developments pose a significant challenge to Google’s dominant position in the search market. Currently, there haven’t been significant changes in market shares, with Google still leading according to Statcounter.

If Microsoft aims to gain market share from Google, it would need to negotiate with Apple and Samsung to become the default search engine on their devices. Such agreements are worth billions of dollars. There was a brief moment where Samsung considered replacing Google with Bing, but ultimately that change did not occur.