Google has officially made its AI chatbot “Bard” available in the United States and the UK, notching their place in the artificial intelligence “arms race” that has taken the tech world by storm since OpenAI released its GPT-3 program last November. Microsoft released its own bot just a few weeks ago, though it immediately heralded concern for its unpredictable mannerisms and even “creepy” behavior, as described by Kevin Roose from The New York Times.

“Google’s had a rocky AI journey after being caught out by the runaway success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot,” write a team of contributors at Forbes.

This all begs the question: is Google really prepared to be a leader in this field? It may be a forefather of today’s AI technology, but it’s not at the front of the pack in exciting users and Wall Street.

–Google Opens Early Access To Bard AI, Prompts Small Bump In Stock Price (forbes.com)

One of Bard’s unique features is its apparent ability to “draft” various answers to choose from, given a user’s prompt. ChatGPT gives just one response. Google also plans to incorporate AI into their other apps, like Google Docs and Sheets.

Will Google succeed in their quest to accommodate the flood of AI hype, or will their latest venture only reflect a sort of desperation to keep up with the status quo and fizzle out over time? Only time will tell.