Google is asking employees to test potential ChatGPT competitors, including a chatbot called ‘Apprentice Bard’

Google is testing new artificial intelligence-powered chat products that are likely to influence a future public product launch. They include a new chatbot and a potential way to integrate it into a search engine.

The Alphabet company is working on a project under its cloud unit called “Atlas,” which is a “code red” effort to respond to ChatGPT, the large-language chatbot that took the public by storm when it went public late last year. 

Google is also testing a chatbot called “Apprentice Bard,” where employees can ask questions and receive detailed answers similar to ChatGPT. Another product unit has been testing a new search desktop design that could be used in a question-and-answer form. 

Leaders have been asking more employees for feedback on the efforts in recent weeks. CNBC viewed internal documents and spoke with sources about the efforts currently underway.

The product tests come after a recent all-hands meeting where employees raised concerns about the company’s competitive edge in AI, given the sudden popularity of ChatGPT, which was launched by OpenAI, a San Francisco-based startup that’s backed by Microsoft. 

Google’s AI chief Jeff Dean told employees at the time that the company has much more “reputational risk” in providing wrong information and thus is moving “more conservatively than a small startup.” However, he and CEO Sundar Pichai teased at the time that Google may launch similar products to the public some time this year. Google’s prime business is web search, and the company has long touted itself as a pioneer in AI.

One of the test products is a chatbot called Apprentice Bard, which uses Google’s conversation technology LaMDA, or Language Model for Dialogue Applications.

“As a result of ChatGPT, the LaMDA team has been asked to prioritize working on a response to ChatGPT,” read one…