Google’s DeepMind promises to have a ChatGPT rival soon – and it could be better in an important way
Google subsidiary DeepMind says it may soon launch a ChatGPT rival — and its chatbot promises to be a more secure type of AI assistant.
DeepMind has been a pioneer in AI research for the past decade and was acquired by Google nine years ago. However, with ChatGPT stealing headlines recently, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says Time (opens in a new tab) that it is considering releasing its own chatbot, called Sparrow, to a “private beta” sometime in 2023.
Sparrow was introduced to the world last year as a proof of concept in a research paper (opens in a new tab) described it as a “helpful dialogue agent and reduced risk of unsafe and inappropriate responses”.
While there’s some doubt about the potential dangers of chatbots, which DeepMind says includes “inaccurate or fabricated information,” it looks like Sparrow could be ready to take off in beta form soon. Given DeepMind’s close relationship with Google, it could become the search giant’s effective answer to ChatGPT.
According to Demis Hassabis, the slight delay to Sparrow’s launch is due to DeepMind’s keenness to ensure that it has key features that ChatGPT lacks – most notably, citing specific sources. As Hassabis told Time, “it’s the right thing to be cautious on that front”.
From DeepMind’s research paper, it seems likely that Sparrow will initially be more restrained and conservative than ChatGPT. The latter has gone viral with its impressive ability to help people from programmer for the poet’s armchairbut it also caused alarm with its discriminatory commenting ability and malware writing skills.
DeepMind spoke of the behavioral restraint rules Sparrow built upon, along with its willingness to refuse to answer questions in “context appropriate for human obedience”. In the initial tests, Sparrow clearly gave a reasonable answer and, importantly, supported it with evidence “78% of the time when asked an actual question”.
But its true capabilities will become more apparent when that public beta rolls out later this year. We’ll definitely get popcorn for the first AI chatbot debate between Google’s Sparrow and ChatGPT is becoming more and more popular with Microsoft.
Analysis: Chatbot AI is still in kindergarten
Anyone who has used ChatGPT will know that it is quite capable of mimicking intelligence in a number of topics. But while it’s certainly an interesting ride, AI chatbots also need ethical intelligence and the ability to cite sources – and that’s where DeepMind says their ‘dialogue agent’ Sparrow is the most powerful. .
Taking this to the next level will require a lot of outside input, which is why Sparrow’s public beta is imminent. DeepMind says that developing better rules for its AI assistant “will require expert input on a wide range of topics (including policymakers, social scientists, and ethicists). learning) and input involving multiple groups of users and affected groups”.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (which created ChatGPT), similarly spoke about the difficulties of opening AI chatbots without causing collateral damage. Above Twitter (opens in a new tab) He admits, “there will be serious problems with the use of OpenAI technology over time; we will do our best but will not successfully anticipate every problem.”
In other words, the developers of both ChatGPT and DeepMind’s Sparrow are like parents to curious toddlers, which offers equal fun and danger – especially when their kindergarten teacher Use the internet effectively.
ChatGPT has been going strong and towards a monetized future with ChatGPT Professional, a paid tier is imminent. But DeepMind’s Sparrow looks like it could be the softer character AI chatbots need as they race against next-gen models, like the rumored ChatGPT-4.