Google is at a “code red” and seriously responding to ChatGPT by reassigning various departments “to help develop and release new A.I. prototypes and products.”
ChatGPT is currently the most famous example of technology that can directly answer your questions in a conversational manner.
According to The New York Times, Google is treating the issue seriously with management declaring a “code red,” which is akin to all hands on deck. CEO Sundar Pichai, according to the NYT, “has upended the work of numerous groups inside the company to respond to the threat that ChatGPT poses.”
From now until a major conference expected to be hosted by Google in May, teams within Google’s research, Trust and Safety, and other departments have been reassigned to help develop and release new A.I. prototypes and products.
This includes “building A.I. products that can create artwork and other images.” Google already detailed some of its DALL-E competitors, and plans to make them available as part of AI Test Kitchen’s Season 2:
That end point is presumably I/O 2023, though it’s not clear if the goal is to make product announcements by then. Plans include making its existing LaMDA chat technology available as a Cloud offering for third parties.
Google is highly concerned about accuracy, and one executive explicitly said that the AI “can make stuff up” when it’s not sure, while bias and toxic language are other issues. One approach might be limiting prototypes to 500,000 users.
Google sees this as a struggle to deploy its advanced A.I. without harming users or society, according to a memo viewed by The Times.
However, the company has to consider how this technology could seriously upend its Search and ads business if people prefer talking to a bot for answers, which is something Google acknowledges as an emerging user need/preference.
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Author: Abner Li
Source: 9TO5Google
