Google's AI eases search and work execution with new development

Pioneering technology companies such as Google continue to make huge investments in AI. [iStockphoto] Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not the only vehicle that drives us into the future but also the future itself, with limitless abilities to advance our world. It could also help us to perform previously unheard-of or very difficult, tasks within seconds. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet, says it 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," he writes. "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 organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." To harness the power of AI in workplaces is to peddle towards more productivity, with better-refined results and at faster speeds. AI provides endless, exciting possibilities, albeit with fears it may erase tens of thousands of jobs by 2025 but with the potential of introducing many more. Pioneering companies such as Google continue to make huge investments in AI. "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 are starting to see today," says Pichai. And Google has even gone one further with language models as part of translating deep research and breakthroughs into products that are most needed by users. Two years ago, says Pichai, the company unveiled next-generation language and conversation capabilities powered by its 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," he says. Language models 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, Pichai says. "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," says Pichai. Bard is being released with the company's lightweight model version of LaMDA, with a need for significantly less computing power which will enable scale to more users and thus provide 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. It is another leap in the ability of machines to improve search results for users. Pichai says some of the predecessors of Bard, such as BERT, one of the company's first Transformer models and MUM, "which is 1,000 times more powerful than BERT and has a next-level and multi-lingual understanding of information which can pick out key moments in videos. Exciting opportunities It can also provide critical information, including crisis support, in more languages" have created a way to better ways of engaging with information. "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," he says. "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." Users have, over time, widened the scope of demands on Google from a simple search for basic information to the pursuit of deeper insights and understanding, complete with a "diverse range of opinions or perspectives". "Soon, you'll see AI-powered features in Search that distil 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," Pichai says. Google also plans to onboard individual developers, creators and enterprises so they can try its Generative Language API, initially powered by LaMDA with models to follow. "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 computing 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," Pichai says. ptheuri@standardmedia.co.ke

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