Google Search Launches Bard, It's ChatGPT Feature, To Trusted Testers

Well, we knew it was coming and here it is, Bard - Google's answer to ChatGPT. Google is now having its trusted testers test out Bard and will soon roll it out more widely to users in Google Search and others products in the coming weeks, Google announced. It is not called Apprectice Bard but rather Bard.

I covered this when the news broke at Search Engine Land and as I pointed out, right now, Google does not have an answer for how to attribute or link to answers Bard generates - yet. But I do suspect Google will have some answer for it. I also mentioned that Google has been writing knowledge panels using AI and other methods since 2018 and said then it is not stealing. So it will be interesting to see what Google ends up doing here.

Bard is Google's experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, where Google can answer questions that might not have one right answer. Google said they will roll this out more widely in the coming weeks but for now, only trusted testers (who is outsourced to a third-party company) will be able to play with it.

Google said, "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."

Here is a screenshot they shared of how it might look in Google Search:

This is how it might look like in Google Search (without the attribution part...).

This is the Bard direct interface, not in search:

I am super excited to see how this evolves at Google, Bing and others.

It is not too far off from the leaks of the Bing ChatGPT interface.

Here is Sundar Pichai's tweets:

1/ In 2021, we shared next-gen language + conversation capabilities powered by our Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA). Coming soon: Bard, a new experimental conversational #GoogleAI service powered by LaMDA. https://t.co/cYo6iYdmQ1

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 6, 2023

3/ We'll combine their feedback with our own internal testing to make sure Bard's responses meet our high bar for quality, safety, and groundedness and we will make it more widely available in coming weeks. It's early, we will launch, iterate and make it better.

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 6, 2023

5/ Developers can soon try our Generative Language API, initially powered by LaMDA with a range of models to follow. Over time, our goal is to create a set of tools and APIs that will make it easy for others to build more innovative applications with AI.

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 6, 2023

Here is some of the SEO community reaction:

Yeah you would think that making statements like "some say this" and "others say that" would be substantiated with, IDK, a link to the source. Just an idea. https://t.co/P5xvGvAv1V

— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) February 6, 2023

I can't with "Bard" https://t.co/WOBPlyoe6N

— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) February 6, 2023

Bard: What you get when you let AI name itself. https://t.co/todOZBbnCE

— Greg Finn (@gregfinn) February 6, 2023

Oh, bizarre. When the ChatGPT buzz began, I remarked that we'll never get the Irish bards again with robots doing the thinking for us. How glib is Google naming this after humans who spent 7 years training to recite hundreds of poems + stories? And how weird for me to see it.

— Miriam Ellis (@Miriam_Ellis_) February 6, 2023

Attribution is a must - I hope this is not where Google is heading - this is not the way https://t.co/PRH2LSKjR7

— Mordy Oberstein 🇺🇦 (@MordyOberstein) February 6, 2023

So I can't help but wonder about lawsuits coming for unauthorized use of owned material in these AI responses?

Letting Google crawl your site to index it to be in search results is one thing.

Taking my content into your AI database to produce your own answers is quite another.

— Julie F Bacchini (@NeptuneMoon) February 6, 2023

It's a little concerning to see that the screenshots Google shared do not show websites as sources used for the AI generated answer.

This is likely because the answer is generated from "the breath of the world's knowledge."

Drawing from the knowledge graph perhaps? pic.twitter.com/OVwuWScnDt

— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) February 6, 2023

The AI wars have begun. https://t.co/N3bgnhyysL

— Barry Adams 📰 (@badams) February 6, 2023

I thought for SURE they'd include source citations - never count on Google to do the right things the first few times 🙄 https://t.co/78MjYOD88m

— Carrie Hill 🗺️🎙️ (@CarrieHill) February 6, 2023

Why would anyone want to publish blogs after that?

What's the point of publishing original articles ?

Google will crawl my article, learn from it , serve the solution to its customers as its own. https://t.co/wSwTld3qRJ

— Fardun (@FardunRahman) February 6, 2023

In a world of AI search engine wars, the brand, unique perspective and insights & quality fact checking with references are becoming key to survive. Structured data & information have now become a commodity https://t.co/IpcRQFy56e

— Dennis Goedegebuure (@TheNextCorner) February 6, 2023

Google Bard - a rival to ChatGPT

The end of SEO websites maybe. https://t.co/ZWowpV5DUg

— Liaqat Hussain 🇵🇰 (@Edwardian842) February 6, 2023

And from now on, whenever I hear "Google Bard," I'll think of the OG. #LegendOfVoxMachina #Criticalrole https://t.co/PuYfJaHaAE pic.twitter.com/SCr1YWsUZO

— Ian Lurie 🇺🇦 @ianlurie@mastodon.social (@IanLurie) February 6, 2023

Going to be a busy few months... #GoogleBard https://t.co/aEKFLlmMeF

— Will O'Hara 👨🏽‍💻 (@willohara) February 6, 2023

What a momental time for search

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 6, 2023

Brain buzzing with all the search news and announcements this week! SEOs cannot sleep. What a time to be alive! The future is bright 🚀

— Fabrice Canel (@facan) February 7, 2023

Ciao @sundarpichai @JohnMu, Will Bard be visible in all searches or in some of them? Wouldn't it be correct to add links to sources or at least citations? https://t.co/ySa4z6idu1

— Marino Lagattolla (@LagMarino) February 7, 2023

I think publishers are worried they will create content that bard then surfaces direct in search. With no citation or option to click sources where is the incentive for sites to create content? Guess we need to see exactly how it works though

— Robi (@robiplop) February 7, 2023

Also, make sure to check out the roundup at Techmeme. 

Forum discussion at Twitter, WebmasterWorld. 

Update: Later at the Paris event on February 8th, Google spoke about attribution a bit:

Also today from Google Search SVP @wittednote, “As we scale new AI features like this, we'll continue to prioritize approaches that will allow us to send valuable traffic to a wide range of creators and support a healthy, open web.”

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 8, 2023

Content Source: seroundtable.com