Bard is not ChatGPT: let me tell you why Google has no competitors
Think With Giorgio - For a Better Internet
Edited by Giorgio Taverniti
N. 1 - 16 February 2023
Google has launched Bard. After a few days, and with a lot of confusion, Google has set up a livestream event, announced by The Verge in this article. Although Mitchell Clark wrote “Of course, it’s very possible the presentation will be more about tools we’re already familiar with”…everyone thinks that Google will be presenting Bard.
It was a very disappointing event for experts following Google's path in AI.
Google shares fall, perhaps on belief Bard made a mistake. Yes, but if you look at the trends over the last month, you can see how the newspaper is fooling you. Google shares fall after a jump. The omission is also a lie.
I’m going to take the opportunity to make a contribution that can somehow disseminate more correct information about what is happening. Because the risk is not to understand what revolution we are heading for. Everyone will try to say that it is a competitor to ChatGPT, but it really isn’t. A new way of search is emerging, a deeper one, a hybrid between classic Search with quick information and a deeper Search.
I'm going to take the Google article and break it down, because those who haven't studied the development of Google for many years don't understand what's happening and think absurd things. I will comment on the article paragraph by paragraph, word by word. Let's get started.
The article is obviously writter and signed by Sundar Pichai, who was appointed CEO specifically to lead Google into the AI era. In fact, they have been working on it for many years: so to say that Google has fallen behind is like saying that any striker in the Italian Serie B (second division football league) today is more "ahead" than Maradona.
Introduction
AI is the most profound technology we are working on today. Whether it's helping doctors detect diseases earlier or enabling people to access information in their own language, AI helps people, businesses and communities unlock their potential. And it opens up new opportunities that could significantly improve billions of lives. That's why we re-oriented the company around AI six years ago -- and why we see it as the most important way we can deliver on our mission: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
There are 3 very important things to emphasise here.
First of all, the mission. When he was asked 2 years ago how Google will make the next trillion dollars, his answer was that they are not afraid of anything, because the mission they have always makes them one step ahead of everyone. And that they will make them by applying AI in a deep way across all products.
The second thing to note is that "we refocused the company on AI six years ago". This is not a random year. It is early 2017. Pichai became CEO in 2015 with this very mission, and 2017 is the year they developed a new deep learning method: Transformer. And Google released it as open source. Thanks to this method, which is also used in ChatGP(T), since 2017 they have been using it and declining it in different things. Repeat this with me: Google invented something, released it as open source, and innovated it internally with many things that we will see soon. Others have taken that thing and added to it. Google innovates on it, uses it in all its products, using all the information it has: the biggest databases in human history, basically. While others are scraping data.
Third, and most powerful point: AI helps people discover diseases first, learn anything in their own language, help businesses and communities. As always, Google's vision is one of those that tells us that it’s here to stay.
Google doesn't care about having a single application, it wants to have the software and the hardware.
Google doesn’t want to be Amazon, but a platform for all stores in the world, online and offline.
Now with AI, Google has opened up to open source, and its interest beyond the evolution of the industry is to be able to help the development of AI in any field. You will see the API of these systems. You will see the sources.
Google doesn't really care about individual things, Google builds ecosystems that can encompass everyone's individual things. Google wants to be like air to us humans.
Will you allow me a moment of arrogance? I know, so many are hoping for the arrival of something that will break the status quo. But let me tell you this: you are incompetent if you think it can be ChatGPT. Or the Metaverse. ChatGPT will not surpass Google, because you can’t even imagine what Google is. If you are in the Internet business and you think otherwise, I suggest you change your profession.
Let's go to the second part of the introduction. Oh yes, we are just at the beginning.
Since then we've continued to make investments in AI across the board, and Google AI and DeepMind are advancing the state of the art. Today, the scale of the largest AI computations is doubling every six months, far outpacing Moore's Law. At the same time, advanced generative AI and large language models are capturing the imaginations of people around the world. In fact, our Transformer research project and our field-defining paper in 2017, as well as our important advances in diffusion models, are now the basis of many of the generative AI applications you're starting to see today.
Oh yeah. DeepMind. I recommend studying the innovation that DeepMind made in AI field. And second: we need to focus on the $100 billion that Google has invested in AI over the last few years. Not 1. Not 10. 100. To innovate, to improve, not to buy companies. Like Microsoft, which is investing in OpenAI. Here is a chronological infographic of some of the most important AI applications that Google has developed.
What Google does, it's really driven the development of today's deep learning models. We are seeing it today because the OpenAI people have decided to make public a very problematic version that says a lot of bullshit. Where is the responsibility for this? Do people enthusiastic about this realize what harm this way of releasing this Artificial Intelligence method could do?
Think about Meta. Meta has launched Galactica. But they retired the product because Galactica produced inaccurate and unreliable results. They act responsibly. People don't understand the strengths and weaknesses of these language models.
It's always the same old story anyway. OpenAI has been irresponsible. We see it in what happens in every conversation. Someday we will discuss whether AI movies or OpenAI with ChatGPT have done more to misinform about AI. Getting the whole world to approach this method without dealing with how it reinforces cognitive biases, how it creates new ones, what dangers it can bring to how we think about AI... Does that really make you happy?
Introducing Bard
It's a really exciting time to be working on these technologies as we translate deep research and breakthroughs into products that truly help people. That's the journey we've been on with large language models. Two years ago we unveiled next-generation language and conversation capabilities powered by our Language Model for Dialogue Applications (or LaMDA for short).
We've been working on an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, that we're calling Bard. And today, we're taking another step forward by opening it up to trusted testers ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks.
“Truly help people”. The number of people who are still trying to figure out how to use ChatGPT and who are spending themselves on healthy outreach is an indication of the problems we face. How such an AI method can help us remains to be seen. LaMDA was created specifically for dialogue and was presented in 2021, where it caused quite a stir.
Google is treading carefully here: they will have it tested to get feedback and improve it. They will not go public because there are many dangers that need to be considered.
Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world's knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models. It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses.
Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills.
But here's how Bard differs. It combines the biggest and broadest knowledge in the world. Is it clear enough when I say that they have the largest databases in human history? And with what? With the best technology they have, which they have been improving a lot since 2017. And with up-to-date, high-quality answers.
Of course, Google is also based on improving everything based on our use of their products. So their evolution is not only based on the innovation departments, but it's also through us. Google Search is the way it is because we've made a devastating contribution to it, those of you who are a bit more technical have often heard me say that we're all Quality Raters. Here: imagine what's going to happen now.
Today, Google not only has one of the most advanced models: it’s designed to evolve with us. Just like Search, Android, Chrome and many others. They came later, not earlier. And they outperformed them all. And it helps with antitrust too.
Bard is not a competitor to ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is Language Model accessible via an interface and structure that makes it conversational.
Bard distils the answer from search results by combining multiple sources. One of its best features is the ability to answer a NORA query. NORA: No One Right Answer.
Perhaps Bard is a competitor to Microsoft. They are integrating ChatGPT into Bing and Edge. But we don't know how. Is it a real integration or are they just sticking it on? Gianluca Fiorelli told me to read this: Bing subreddit has quite a few examples of new Bing chat going out of control. And I’d like to share with you this article, “Bing AI Can't Be Trusted” by
, which shows some examples.And I know you want to have an open mind and say "Bard is competitor to ChatGPT like Coca-Cola is competitor to water". No, please. But by putting them on the same level, we exclude the possibility of explaining to people that it is better to drink two litres of water a day than two litres of Coca-Cola. Because they are hurting themselves. That's why I'm pushing on this front. It may be a technical pain in the ass, perhaps for insiders, to explain that water is good for you because it thins the mucus in your airways and lungs, so it helps you breathe better. It helps you because it allows you to get rid of things that are bad for you and makes the billions of other things better.
We're releasing it initially with our lightweight model version of LaMDA. This much smaller model requires significantly less computing power, enabling us to scale to more users, allowing for more feedback. We'll combine external feedback with our own internal testing to make sure Bard's responses meet a high bar for quality, safety and groundedness in real-world information. We're excited for this phase of testing to help us continue to learn and improve Bard's quality and speed.
And here we come to another fascinating subject. The current version is a lighter one. There has been a lot of talk about the famous 3 million per month needed to maintain ChatGPT or its unsustainability and how much it all costs us and the planet. Sustainability is one of Google's values. In addition, Google has its own hardware and quantum computer that it is developing. It cannot be like this forever: Google will have to improve quality and speed, because those are two key things for them. And it will have to be sustainable. Go read this on LaMDA: there are some basic points.
Bringing the benefits of AI into our everyday products
We have a long history of using AI to improve Search for billions of people. BERT, one of our first Transformer models, was revolutionary in understanding the intricacies of human language. Two years ago, we introduced MUM, which is 1,000 times more powerful than BERT and has next-level and multi-lingual understanding of information which can pick out key moments in videos and provide critical information, including crisis support, in more languages.
The first algorithm created with the Transformer model was BERT, in 2018, but 2 years ago Google launched MUM: it was on another level. Multimodal search, direct translation from one language to another (before, the translation was from Japanese to English and English to Italian), very functional text summaries. And Google has started to decline by automatically finding chapters of YouTube videos and increasing security and support for dangerous searches in multiple languages. Scalability, speed, reliability. These are the key points. Not a specific feature, but the evolution within its ecosystem.
In Why Google’s BARD will beat ChatGPT by
.He wrote:
Amongst the biggest advantages that Google has over ChatGPT is the multimodal capability of Google’s AI Systems. Simply put, Bard will be far for than a language model. It will integrate language, images, sound and other senses. To quote their writeup- Introducing Pathways: A next-generation AI architecture- in which they introduced their Pathways training system for Machine Learning Models.
I’m not alone! And I ask a friend of mine, Gianluca Fiorelli, to share his thoughts with us:
We cannot deny that the introduction of chat systems inside search with “Sydney”, aka the OpenAI-based Bing/Edge chat and Bard by Google (and we should not forget You.com, Neeva, and Perplexity), represents the biggest revolution in Search since the launch of Google’s Knowledge Graph.
Therefore the enthusiasm, and the worries, the SEO industry is manifesting is completely justified. However, the sensation I have is that the biggest part of the community (and the market) tends to look at the surface of the AI revolution, and not fully understanding what it means and what are the differences between the strategies of Google and Bing.
Maybe this is because SEOs had the possibility to play with ChatGPT, experiment with all its possibilities… and not with AI systems like LaMDA, PaLM, Sparrow and others ML-based softwares, and this is causing people to think that Bing seems to be the potential winner of this race, not other more deep reasons.I am not saying that Google will end winning this AI War… but I sincerely believe that it has the biggest possibility to win it.
History is backing this idea of mine:
Microsoft was dominating the browser market share, but Google annihilated it with Chrome in few years;
Microsoft was the first Search Engine offering people the ability to perform Visual Search, but It is Google Lens what generates 8 billion searches per month;
Microsoft launched Cortana in 2014 and Google is Assistant in 2016, and what system is more popular?
However, history is not the only reason that makes me think that Google will finally take the lead in the AI era. In fact, even if we consider that Microsoft may have a knowledge of AI similar if not equivalent to the Google’s one, but the very much robust and pervasive nature of the Google ecosystem. The difference was clear in the two public presentations. Without entering into debating about the very scarce appeal of the presentation by Google in Paris, and the infamous mistake by Bard (it’s ironic, though, how the hundreds of mistakes ChatGPT does are not considering the same way), we saw Bing presenting an AI chat system in Bing and Edge, while Google said: “We are going to have Bard, but also more Lens, and AI in translations, Maps et al”.
In other words, Microsoft presented another gadget for its search engine… a fantastic one, but Google told us not only that they can offer the same gadget but also that Bard it’s only another brick of very much larger Multimodal revolution, which will affect not only its Search Engine but everything in its ecosystem: Search, Photos, Videos, Voice/Audio, email, Maps, TV, and IoT.
This is the Gianluca’s thought and I want to thank him for that.
Moving on in the Google article
Now, our newest AI technologies -- like LaMDA, PaLM, Imagen and MusicLM -- are building on this, creating entirely new ways to engage with information, from language and images to video and audio. We're working to bring these latest AI advancements into our products, starting with Search.
And indeed. Here are Google's AI methods applied to images or music. There is a world out there, but one of the next steps in the evolution of AI methods is to move away from narrow methods. That is, those that can only do one task. One of the evolutions that's being tried in this area is to integrate one AI method with another AI method at a deeper level than just a connection. The first example we have is with MUM and multidimensional research. This is also why Google is the major player in this area.
One of the most exciting opportunities is how AI can deepen our understanding of information and turn it into useful knowledge more efficiently — making it easier for people to get to the heart of what they’re looking for and get things done. When people think of Google, they often think of turning to us for quick factual answers, like “how many keys does a piano have?” But increasingly, people are turning to Google for deeper insights and understanding — like, “is the piano or guitar easier to learn, and how much practice does each need?” Learning about a topic like this can take a lot of effort to figure out what you really need to know, and people often want to explore a diverse range of opinions or perspectives.
People's needs. The research. We are changing as human beings, and the attention that we have given to these systems because of ChatGPT has put the spotlight on that: we can ask more complex questions. And so we have hybrid models like Bing+ChatGPT or Perplexity.ai.
This is Google's field. They can't touch it. And obviously with the firepower, the speed and the quality it has, not many people will feel the need to search outside of Google for answers to their complex questions. Who would have ever thought of searching for [restaurants near me] on Google? Nobody, many years ago, but when we learned that we could do it, we started doing it. In search, meant as the action of human beings, Google has pioneered most of the new ways of searching. We have learned to search in many ways. Thanks to Google. This is a new way. And Google will have the biggest market. This is what it cares about, this is its mission. And it's all connected. You cannot think that one feature alone can take care of all of our search needs. Google knows that very well. I think it is the case that, after having passed the hangover from these systems, you regain your lucidity for a moment by considering it in today's world, which still exists, which has not been wiped out.
That's what we always do anyway: we think something is going to replace the rest, and then it just comes along. But AI will flank everything. And those who flank it first will displace the others. And it will have to flank what is already there, and who has the data, the people, the tools to... OK, you get the picture.
AI can be helpful in these moments, synthesizing insights for questions where there's no one right answer. Soon, you'll see AI-powered features in Search that distill complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats, so you can quickly understand the big picture and learn more from the web: whether that's seeking out additional perspectives, like blogs from people who play both piano and guitar, or going deeper on a related topic, like steps to get started as a beginner. These new AI features will begin rolling out on Google Search soon.
I don't know if you've got it. A way to both answer the complex questions and to get a picture of everything to then go deeper, this will bring people who have experience even higher up in the search results. It will reinforce E-E-A-T, it will reinforce, as I've been saying for a while, "being the source of your own industry".Will it change SEO? But, excuse me, quite frankly, when the hell has it ever stayed the same? The thing that hasn't changed is the fact that you have to strive for the highest quality, to create content, resources, services and products that are the best in the world.If this had been done from the very beginning, it would have been a great benefit to everyone.But because it doesn't happen, that's when SEO changes.Then yes, people will change. Queries will change. Sources will change.
Helping developers innovate with AI
Beyond our own products, we think it's important to make it easy, safe and scalable for others to benefit from these advances by building on top of our best models. Next month, we'll start onboarding individual developers, creators and enterprises so they can try our Generative Language API, initially powered by LaMDA with a range of models to follow.
See Google's vision? Create ecosystems. Creating things on their own that everyone can use. That's like saying that Google is interested in the Metaverse. Absolutely not, if Google invests in it, it will be to create an ecosystem for all the metaverses, we are on a completely different level of vision than Meta and Microsoft. It is more like Apple, where they are doing it in a closed way.
Over time, we intend to create a suite of tools and APIs that will make it easy for others to build more innovative applications with AI. Having the necessary compute power to build reliable and trustworthy AI systems is also crucial to startups, and we are excited to help scale these efforts through our Google Cloud partnerships with Cohere, C3.ai and Anthropic, which was just announced last week. Stay tuned for more developer details soon.
And here we have the enormous amount of relationships, companies, creations, acquisitions that Google is able to do. To incorporate, in its phases, of its ecosystem and then make them available to everybody, not like Microsoft increasing its stake in OpenAI and taking ChatGPT exclusively to stick it in Bing and Edge. You can read a focus on Microsoft here by
.Bold and responsible
It's critical that we bring experiences rooted in these models to the world in a bold and responsible way. That's why we're committed to developing AI responsibly: In 2018, Google was one of the first companies to publish a set of AI Principles. We continue to provide education and resources for our researchers, partner with governments and external organizations to develop standards and best practices, and work with communities and experts to make AI safe and useful.
Really take the time to read those Principles
Be socially beneficial.
Avoid creating or reinforcing unfair bias.
Be built and tested for safety.
Be accountable to people.
Incorporate privacy design principles.
Uphold high standards of scientific excellence.
Be made available for uses that accord with these principles.
It is really clear why they could not launch Bard. And have you seen what a Google error can do? And do you know how many errors ChatGPT and Bing have already made? Think about it
And now we go into the last point:
Whether it's applying AI to radically transform our own products or making these powerful tools available to others, we'll continue to be bold with innovation and responsible in our approach. And it's just the beginning - more to come in all of these areas in the weeks and months ahead.
Responsibility. It is not a randomly inserted term. It is too important an issue for all of us.
So… who will impact more SEO as an industry?
That's the answer that Gianluca Fiorelli gave me:
If we reduce SEO only to visibility in a Search Engine, hence as the old (decrepit?) definition of SEO as Search Engine Optimization, then Microsoft may have a chance, even if it has a very long way to run considering the ridiculous market share has worldwide.On the contrary, if we consider SEO as Search Experience Optimization, hence as a set of strategies and tactic, which purpose is to improve the visibility along all the search journey and in all its touch points, then Google has all for ending with the AI trophy.
I wrote a book in Italian, “Google Liquido”, and in a few months I will do it in Spanish. After that I hope to make also in English, like ebook. I used to say that Google is a Liquid Ecosystem and for me SEO stands for Search Ecosystem Optimization. If some of you are interestet to go deep in this definition, comment this edition of newsletter and I will write a long, deep, newsletter about it.
AI AND WMF: THE AI GLOBAL SUMMIT IS HERE
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!
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 first contribution. Next week I'll be adding a podcast link to this newsletter for those who don't like text and want to listen.
And... 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.
Now it is time to thank 3 people:
Aleyda Solis: I met her many years ago at our event in Italy and she told me to start sharing content in English! Aleyda, I will thank you in person at The WMF - Web Make Future!
Gianluca Fiorelli: I have known him for over 10 years and he is a very close friend of mine. We often share thoughts about SEO and Google and we grow together in our vision thanks to this!
Camilo Coutinho: I met him in Dublin for the Product Experts programme for YouTube, we share a passion for video! And he didn't forget me during that time. He said we should start a live together right away and I promised him: yes! In 3 months I will do it!
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.
For a Better Internet.
Ciao.