4 things you need to know about Google Bard
Google's Bard has been launched and can be found here. It is now available in the US and UK. In the meantime you can sign up for the waiting list, which is suddenly trending again not as a marketing move, but as a need to limit access and have a longer testing period.
Not a single newspaper has written about this: Google's shares rose by 100 billion after Bard's launch.
After Google first announced Bard, everyone saw it as a fall, even though the stock didn't fall at all. This time, on the contrary, no one talked about the stock's progress, while it actually went up.
Google's communication in the launch and around Bard is what I expected. But before we go any further, let's put one important thing in context, because I've been telling you about it since the first special edition: accountability.
In a post I created on Telegram, Linkedin, and Facebook, I explained from the beginning that my goal was to promote a more ethical and educational version of information sharing. To give people the tools to understand what they were using, and I explained how Open AI had been completely irresponsible.
The launch of GPT-4, on which I will return shortly, only proved what I was saying: this time the company even chose not to share much information about the model, removing information about the training data. Then its CEO said that he is "concerned" about the risks of AI.
Carissa Veliz's tweet reflects what I think.
Guerre di Rete edition by Carola Frediani titled in Italian Ciao GPT-4, arrivederci team sull’etica AI, highlights the hypocrisy of this moment. In Microsoft's latest wave of layoffs also went the ethics and society teams in the artificial intelligence division. But in the Microsoft Copilot presentation video, there was an emphasis right on ethics.
The era of open AI is over because there is nothing open about it anymore. It never started, of course, Microsoft's is good and somebody has to replace Google somehow.
I don't need to repeat something much more obvious, Google's Don't be evil is long gone. I'm writing it very clearly so there's no misunderstanding.
The difference is that Google takes accountability more seriously. I'm not saying it's the best, not even that it can do much, but much more. But if you go through all the screenshots, you notice things that you can't find elsewhere.
I think it would be pointless to compare Bard to others at this stage. It is an experimental release; I expect GPT-4 to be further along.
However, there are at least 4 things to note.
The first is the label Experiment right away, immediate, as soon as you log in for the first time, that always accompanies the name Bard.
The second is a more explicit warning with a pop-up that better explains that this is an experiment.
The third is the wording that ALWAYS accompanies its prompt input: Bard may display inaccurate and offensive information that does not represent Google's view.
Note the microphone icon. And also, once the answer is provided, there is a Google.it button
The fourth is the launch title, "Try Bard and share your feedback." It doesn't say “here's the revolution that changes everything”, “here's the new Google”, “here's this and that”. It says try it and tell us what you think about it.
I highly recommend Google's 7-page PDF on Bard that really explains in detail the vision they have. Also, on a small note, they have released the API for the PaLM language model.
Couldn’t they have done more? Yes, they could, no doubt. They did the bare minimum, but at least they did it. I expected that, however, I also expect more from Google.
They have an opportunity to create more awareness, to spread more culture. To really make so many people understand what they're using, because it's time to do it.
It is not just a question of ethics and logical teaching. It is an even deeper issue that touches the human being and all developments of technology. The more technology develops, the less we are aware of what we're using. My parents' generation was the generation that knew how to do everything. They knew how to take a car apart, they knew how to do electrical installations at home. I can hardly change a light bulb. Of course, as soon as I pick up a PC, everything changes. Because that's the focus, isn't it?
No. I used to take PCs apart and put them back together when I was a kid. It's the same thing.
It seems like a no-brainer. It sounds like something that progresses. What actually happens is that by not being aware of the technology we use, we become more ignorant, and by becoming more ignorant, we do harm by using it, until we get to the point where we are afraid of it.
Make your mind local. Make your mind local on the Internet.
How many things are we afraid of today that used to make us enthusiastic?
This happens because we do not know how things work. One example out of all: smartphones spy on us.
I know it is inevitable: we will soon be afraid of Artificial Intelligence. You should know that everyone is a little bit to blame: us and the companies that do not provide healthy information. Ignorance should be fought with culture and awareness.
GPT-4 IS IMPRESSIVE
Here are some things to know about GPT-4:
It is only available with the plus accounts
It is more creative: it adapts to the user's writing style and has improved songwriting, scriptwriting, and thus storytelling skills
Accepts input images: we can generate captions and do billions of other things
Accepts up to 25,000 words of input: this is cool for search and analysis, as is generating very long texts.
Greatly improved its ability to comprehend complex texts and riddles, in fact it passed exams that she could not do before
They worked on alignment and security of responses
Thanks to the API, there are already many companies that have integrated it, raising the quality of their products
GPT-4 is truly impressive.
Always be careful not to confuse the quality for Google with the quality of the texts, we always make this confusion. If we think that way, any system in the hands of people who don't know what they're doing will produce texts of very poor quality for Google.
But there is a lot that can be done, and it is getting faster and faster. In fact, AI is on the verge of becoming something that we will use more in our everyday lives than we do now.
MICROSOFT AND GOOGLE BRING AI TO OUR WORK
I devoted a little insight into what Microsoft and Google are doing to bring generative AI into the everyday. You can find it here in Italian.
I also leave you here the two videos, because they are mandatory viewing for those who work with the Internet. They are 2 minutes long.
Google video
Microsoft video
OTHER THINGS ABOUT THE AI
Video generation from text is becoming a reality. In 6 months it will reach an important quality:
ChatGPT allows us to use plugins!
Midjourney is now up to version 5, and the quality of what it can pull out is truly amazing.
But Adobe, Shutterstock and Bing are also launching their own Generative AI systems.
Instead, Andrea Pernici shares this very interesting article: Please do not use ChatGPT to generate personas
OUR EVENT ON AI
The WMF - We Make Future, International Fair and Festival on Technological and Digital Innovation - will be the international hub for Artificial Intelligence (AI). In fact, within the 11th edition of the Festival, scheduled from June 15 to 17th at the Rimini Expo Center, in Italy, the AI Global Summit will be held, a global event dedicated exclusively to AI, the technological leaders who are innovating it and all the human, social and economic fallouts that will impact our lives in the near future.This is a small extract from the press release. This is the official page of AI Global Summit. If you are coming to Italy, let’s meet at the WMF and talk about AI!
YOUTUBE PODCAST
I anticipated the launch of the Youtube Podcast a month ago (in Italian, sorry). In the last few days they made it official.
Not bad to have explained it a month before the official one :D
Yesterday they made a video to show more features and more specific analytics.
Of course, it was quite predictable that they would just put in a plug to improve it from month to month. It's not like I have a crystal ball, it's a banality.
They explain how they are going to improve the discoverability of podcasts and a lot of other things will come with good grace to the early lovers of "it's just a playlist".
And guess what? Tracy Brinkmann on Linkedin (shared with me by Rossella Pivanti):
YouTube🖥️ To Be the Go To Spot For Podcasters? WAIT WHAT? 🤯
Yes!! You heard that right, though currently YouTube is a hotbed for video podcasts, our video friendly Google-owned platform hasn’t quite make it easy for audio only shows... YET!! YouTube podcasting head announced recently that podcasts will be added to YouTube Music soon!!
Instead, I point you to YouTube Multilingual: a great opportunity! In Italian, sorry again. A tutorial where I show you how to set title, description, subtitles...and soon audio in several languages.
TOOLS
Alessio Nittoli launched Peopleasked.com. If it reminds you of another site, it is because the other site, years ago, used his scripts and representation to make a product. I'm glad Alessio did that.
With https://chat.quazel.com/ you can speak many languages with artificial intelligence.
With https://krisp.ai/ you can eliminate the background noise from your conversations.
REACH ME OUT
And that is all. I would like to thank my colleague Sek for helping me translate this newsletter. I'm really pushing myself to produce content in English and this is my second contribution.
I have started a YouTube channel! Guess what it is? It's called Think With Giorgio. It's empty for now, but I'll be working on creating some very in-depth videos on things like the Google ecosystem, YouTube, SEO and so on. I will also be working on a website to explain what I have done in the past and what I want to do in the future: ThinkWithGiorgio.com (I will update in a few days). I also have a Twitter account.
WHAT’S NEXT:
Don't expect 1 content per week, nor per month. I'll be very happy if I make 4 this year. I hope it will be a very deep content for you.
If you like it, share it.
For a Better Internet.
Ciao.