In a video announcement Google posted on Twitter, its yet-to-launch AI chat panel Bard confidently voiced misinformation about the James Webb Space Telescope. “JWST took the first images of a planet outside of our own solar system,” the chatbot replied, which is patently false. (It was the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope that captured images of exoplanets for the first time.) Now, the tech giant is looking to improve Bard’s accuracy and, according to CNBCis asking for help from employees.
Google’s vice president of search Prabhakar Raghavan reportedly sent an email to staff members, asking them to rewrite Bard’s responses on topics they know well. The chatbot “learns best by example,” Raghavan said, and training it with factual responses will help improve its accuracy. Raghavan also included a list of “do’s” and “don’ts” when it comes to correcting Bard’s answers, according to the email seen by CNBC.
Responses must be from a first-person point of view, must be unbiased and neutral, and must be polite, informal, and approachable in tone. Employees are also instructed to “avoid making assumptions based on race, national origin, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, political belief, location, or similar categories.” They are asked not to describe Bard as a person, imply that she has emotions, or claim that she has human-like experiences. Additionally, they are instructed to reject any responses the chatbot may give that contain “legal, medical, financial advice” or are hateful and abusive.
Raghavan’s memo came after Google CEO Sundar Pichai employees emailed, asking them to spend a few hours each week testing the AI chatbot. Google employees reportedly criticized Pichai for a “rushed” and “botched” launch of Bard. The CEO is now giving employees the opportunity to “help shape [the chatbot] and contribute” by testing the company’s new product. He also reminded everyone that some of Google’s “most successful products were not first to market” and that they “gained momentum because they solved important user needs and were based on technical knowledge deep”.
People have been anticipating Google’s response to ChatGPT ever since the OpenAI chatbot arrived late last year. The Microsoft-backed technology has grown in popularity in recent months, enough to make Alphabet and its investors uneasy. google tried to ease investor concerns during his quarterly earnings call in early February talking about his own chatbot and mentioning his work developing an AI-powered search to compete with next-gen Bing.
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