Google Expands AI Bot to Gmail, GDrive, and YouTube

Facts

• As competition with Microsoft-backed OpenAI intensifies, Google announced Tuesday that it will integrate its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, known as Bard, into products such as Gmail, YouTube, and Drive. Users will be able to collaborate with the chatbot through 'Bard Extensions.'¹
• The company says it will incorporate Google Flights, Hotels, and Maps into its AI system to make it function like more of a personal assistant.²
• Bard Extensions, which users can choose to enable or disable for each product, will assist users in conducting professional tasks, such as searching for their resume and summarizing it for a cover letter. To do this, they must enable the chatbot's integration via the extensions page on Chrome.³
• Bard, which was released in February, has also received new applications, including the 'Google It' button to check facts. This follows previously released applications like the ability to generate and debug code, create functions for Google Sheets, and Google Lens to brainstorm caption ideas for a photo.⁴
• The tech giant has also updated Bard's underlying AI Pathways Language Model 2, expanding users' ability to upload images to more than 40 languages, as well as letting them share Bard conversations with others so they can add additional questions to the chat.²

Sources: ¹Forbes, ²New York Times, ³Zdnet and ⁴Verge.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Google public policy. Following extensive programming and security checks, it seems Google is ready to safely implement its AI chatbot into all of its major products. With these extensions, users will have a highly intelligent personal assistant at their fingertips, whether it be to write the perfect work email, plan a fun vacation, or chat in their native language.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Guardian. AI systems with abilities exceeding the limits of human capacity are on the horizon. Governments must step in to stop the dangerous AI development race between big tech companies. If done at the right pace and with the right regulation, AI could offer unprecedented solutions to humanity, but it could also destroy us unless we intervene now.

Predictions