Google‘s Bard announcement last week was meant to show that the company has similar technology as the popular ChatGPT chatbot, even though it still has a ways to go before becoming product-ready, Alphabet Chairman John Hennessy said Monday.
“I think Google was hesitant to productize this because it didn’t think it was really ready for a product yet, but, I think, as a demonstration vehicle, it’s a great piece of technology,” said Hennessy, who has been the chairman of the Google parent company since 2018. He went on to say that he thinks generative artificial intelligence is still one to two years away from being a truly useful tool for the broader public.
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Hennessy was speaking at a summit held by venture firm Celesta Capital in Mountain View, California. Hennessy has a long history in tech, including as a professor, researcher and company founder, and he also served as the president of Stanford University from 2000 to 2016.
Hennessy, who spoke on key trends for 2023, briefly touched on Google being caught in the sudden onrush of interest in ChatGPT and generative AI.
Last week, the company launched its response to ChatGPT in a conversation technology it is calling Bard. However, the announcement had the appearance of being rushed to match Microsoft’s inclusion of ChatGPT technology into its search engine, Bing, and investors punished Alphabet stock, sending it down 9% for the day.
Hennessy said Google was slow to roll out its ChatGPT competitor in part because it’s still giving wrong answers. Google is among the most-used consumer products, and entities like YouTube and Search have sometimes provided inaccurate information in the past.
That past, it seems, is inspiring caution at the company.
“You don’t want to put a system out that either says wrong things or sometimes says toxic things,” Hennessy said during the conference, echoing CEO Sundar Pichai’s response in December when employees asked if the company was falling behind ChatGPT. The…
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