Google is starting to release the chatbot Bard, its rival to ChatGPT.
Google made the announcement Tuesday morning in a blog post. Users in the U.S. and the U.K. can join a waitlist for access. The platform will be expanded to other countries and languages later.
Both platforms are powered by generative AI, a model that enables the technology to provide new, original answers in response to a prompt. The technology has big implications for the travel industry, starting with travel planning and marketing. Booking platforms, like Booking.com and Expedia, are among other travel companies exploring how the technology can be used to power the future of travel planning and booking.
The blog described Bard as “an experiment,” and the next step in the process is to gather user feedback.
According to the post, the chatbot appears to operate similarly to ChatGPT, except that it responds to prompts with more than one answer. Bard is connected to Google search, so users can search for items suggested by Bard if they choose. Google also said that Bard gathers current data from the internet to power its answers, while ChatGPT is limited to data from 2021.
The post said the company will be integrating the tech into the search platform in a deeper way in the future.
Google last week said that it was opening access to its generative AI tech to developers so they may integrate it into their own platforms.
The underlying technology of ChatGPT has been open to developers since the chatbot was released in November.