Google is back

Google steps up its game in the artificial intelligence (AI) arena with the introduction of PaLM 2, a next-generation language model that surpasses other leading systems in some tasks.

Announced at the annual I/O conference, alongside a foldable Pixel phone and a new tablet, Google plans to incorporate PaLM 2 into 25 new products and features, as it seeks to compete against rivals after years of producing groundbreaking AI research with limited product applications.

Similar to other large language models like OpenAI's GPT, PaLM 2 is a versatile AI model. Its capabilities include powering ChatGPT-style chatbots, translating languages, generating computer code, and even analyzing and responding to images. By integrating these abilities, a user can inquire in English about a restaurant in Bulgaria, and the system will search the web for Bulgarian results, find a suitable answer, convert the answer to English, add an image of the location, and then provide a code snippet to create a database entry for the restaurant.

Interacting with PaLM 2 is primarily through Google's chatbot, Bard, now accessible to the general public worldwide. With its multilingual capabilities, Bard supports Japanese and Korean, in addition to English, and plans to extend its language support to 40 languages over time.

For the first time, Bard allows users to send photos, serving as a catalyst for recipe suggestions based on the ingredients in the kitchen. This "multimodal" capability puts Google ahead, as OpenAI has yet to make such feature available with its GPT-4 AI model.

Dubbed as "Duet AI," Google's Workspace users can also collaborate with the PaLM 2 AI for creating text, spreadsheets, and slides in Gmail, Docs, Slides, and Sheets. An image generator, integrated into Google Slides, enables AI-driven visualization, while Google Docs offers a "help me write" button for generating extended text. However, Google cautions that this tool is a creative writing assistant, and factual accuracy may vary.

While Google's push to release PaLM 2 comes with potential risks, the unveiling raised excitement and showcased the capabilities of the new AI system. Still, during the preliminary research, Google acknowledged that systems based on PaLM 2 have instances of toxic language, affecting the initial release of the Bard chatbot which is only available in three languages.