Like Microsoft, Google now wants to put AI everywhere. Including in Google Messages, its messaging app, which will soon integrate its Bard chatbot to write messages, translate texts and even identify images.
Since July 13, Bard, Google’s AI, has been accessible in France from its official website, without having to use a VPN to locate yourself abroad. Based on the LaMDA 2 language model (Language Model for Dialogue Application, or language model for dialogue applications in French), the tool had made a sensational entrance thanks to new functions that were interesting to say the least. Since then, Google has increased its efforts to ensure that its AI catches up with ChatGPT. From now on, Google’s objective is clear: the Mountain View giant wants to integrate Bard into all of its tools and services, whether on mobile, on connected objects or even online. Soon, Bard should even be integrated into Google Messages in order to “help you write messages, translate text, identify images and explore interests”.
Bard arrives in Google Messages: what does that change?
As revealed by the site 9to5Google, which has a habit of digging into the APKs of Google applications, indications of an integration of Bard in Google Messages have been found. As a reminder, APKs are a collection of files for Android (“package”) assembled and compressed in the form of an archive in ZIP format. In particular, they make it possible to predict the functions that could be developed on an application. According to our colleagues, Google Messages could then use Bard’s technology to recommend books, give recipe suggestions, identify an image or even develop a list of activities before leaving on a trip. More generally, the tool will be able to achieve what AI assistants that are driven by generational AI do.
To communicate with artificial intelligence, simply start the discussion with the contact in your conversation list. Bard should indeed appear when you click “New conversation”. It would then appear as a standalone chat with Bard’s logo and name. Because, yes, Google seems to have focused on simplicity for this next update. What’s better than chatting with an assistant accessible in the same place as all other conversations? Be careful though, this discussion will not be protected in the same way by the Mountain View giant. If exchanges with your loved ones are end-to-end encrypted using Google Messages RCS technology, this is not the case for discussions with the bot. But that’s not all ! Your queries could even be read by a human. As 9to5Google reports, Google explains that Bard is a model based on machine learning. In other words, employees could be required to collect data in order to train their tool. This data could then be kept for a maximum period of three years.