Google details Bard, its ChatGPT rival

Details: Google is laying out three AI-related projects as part of a blog post from CEO Sundar Pichai.

1. Bard, the conversational assistant based on Google's LaMDA large language model, is starting limited external testing.
2. The company is offering a preview of how it soon plans to integrate LaMDA into search results, including using the system to help offer a narrative response to queries that don't have one clear answer.
3. Google says it is developing APIs that will let others plug into its large language models, starting with LaMDA itself.

The big picture: ChatGPT and its brethren have been the talk of the tech industry in recent months. Microsoft has upped its investment in OpenAI and said it plans to incorporate generative AI throughout its products.

• Such systems are also seen as a potentially existential threat to the traditional search business, which generates the bulk of Google's revenue.

Yes, but: Generative AI systems like ChatGPT continue to have huge weaknesses. They can't distinguish fact from fiction, tend to make things up and can't tell you where they got their information.