Generative AI Drives Google's New Assistant with Bard Integration

Google has announced its plans to introduce a new version of its virtual assistant, which will leverage the Bard artificial intelligence technology to handle more intricate tasks. This forthcoming product, named "Assistant with Bard," is scheduled to undergo a beta phase release in the near future before becoming accessible to the general public within the next several months, according to the company's announcement on October 4th. This update will imbue the Assistant, which aids users of Android and Google devices in task execution and information retrieval, with some of the capabilities of Bard, a chatbot developed by Google as a response to the popular ChatGPT by OpenAI.

Sissie Hsiao, a Google vice president, expressed in a blog post accompanying the announcement that "Generative AI is opening up new possibilities to build a more intuitive, intelligent, personalized digital assistant."

Google is harnessing generative AI, a technology capable of generating new media such as text and video based on simple prompts, to enhance a wide range of its products. Last month, the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary, disclosed its plans to integrate the Bard chatbot into services like Gmail, Maps, Docs, and YouTube.

At the hardware event held at Google's Pier 57 Manhattan office, Rick Osterloh, Google's devices chief, shared additional examples of how Google is applying generative AI to its applications and services. Osterloh mentioned that next year, the Google Home app will introduce experimental features like summaries of activity around one's front door and the ability to inquire about the status of packages using natural language.

Google Assistant faces competition from Apple Inc.'s Siri and Amazon.com Inc.'s Alexa, and the incorporation of AI capabilities has become a pivotal battleground in this market. Google Assistant is accessible on the company's phones, smart speakers, smartwatches, and other computing devices.