Google’s generative artificial intelligence chatbot, named Bard, continues its deployment with a new functionality to make users ever more connected. Google announced this Tuesday, September 19, that it could now connect to other company applications: from the mailbox, to YouTube, but also GPS Maps…
“For example, if you are planning a trip to the Grand Canyon (a project that requires several tabs), you can ask Bard to retrieve the dates that work for everyone in Gmail, search for flights and hotels, check the trip to the airport in Google Maps and even watch videos from YouTube about activities to do there – all in the same conversation,” explains a press release from the American group.
The internet giant has been developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems for years. It was nevertheless taken by surprise by the success of ChatGPT (OpenAI) at the end of 2022, then by the launch in February of Microsoft’s new Bing, its search engine with generative AI capabilities. Google then launched Bard at the same time, a chatbot capable of producing all kinds of texts (editorials, articles, instructions, dialogues, etc.) upon simple query in everyday language, like ChatGPT.
Exploitation of additional data
The new tool presented on Tuesday September 19, called “Bard Extensions”, can also extract data from Google Docs and the Google Drive storage service, including inside documents in PDF format.
Another feature intended to help users uncover possible “hallucinations” of the program: when it does not have the answer to a question or produces an answer that is not very relevant, a new button, “Google it” should allow you to compare the Bard’s results with the results of a Google search on the same topic, pointing out any discrepancies. This will allow users to not rely solely on the AI program, which tends to invent answers when it misunderstands the word associations used.
Personal assistants
Office automation, code, search, e-mail… Large technology companies, Microsoft and Google in the lead, are rapidly deploying generative AI functionalities in their online software to transform them into a sort of personal assistant. At the same time, they must overcome the objections of regulators, particularly European ones, because this latest generation of AI is even more worrying than previous ones in terms of data confidentiality, risks of use for harmful purposes (fraud, disinformation) or deletions. of jobs.
On Bard’s web page, a window states that the new “extensions” will only access personal data “with your permission.” And any extraction of personal content from Docs, Drive or Gmail will not be used to target ads, train Bard or be seen by company employees, Google promises.