(Bloomberg) — Google will soon release a version of its virtual assistant that leverages its Bard artificial intelligence technology to help users handle more complex tasks.
The new product, called Assistant with Bard, will soon be available for testing and then generally available in the coming months, the company announced Wednesday. With this release, the assistant that helps Android and Google device users complete tasks and find information is powered by Bard, the chatbot that is the company’s answer to OpenAI’s hugely popular ChatGPT. Some of the functions are included.
“Generative AI is creating new opportunities to build digital assistants that are more intuitive, intelligent, and personalized,” Google Vice President Sissie Hsiao said in a blog post accompanying the news.
As tech giants race to take advantage of advances in AI, Google is injecting the technology into its vast product portfolio. Last month, the Alphabet Inc. division announced it would bring Bard chatbots to services such as Gmail, Maps, Docs, and YouTube.
At a hardware event Wednesday at Google’s Pier 57 offices in Manhattan, Google’s head of devices, Rick Osterloh, said Google will generate AI that can be used to create new media such as text and video when given simple prompts. We also discussed other ways to integrate technology that allows you to create products into your apps and services. Next year, Osterloh said, the Google Home app will introduce experimental features such as an overview of activity around your front door and the ability to ask you about the status of your luggage in natural language.
Google Assistant competes with Apple Inc.’s Siri and Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa, and its AI capabilities are a new frontier in that market. Assistant is included in the company’s phones, smart speakers, smart watches and other computers.
–With assistance from Davey Alva.
©2023 Bloomberg LP
