Alphabet-C Strikes Back at Microsoft: PaLM 2, Stronger Than GPT-4?

Earlier this year, Microsoft launched a new version of its Bing search engine, which includes a chatbot powered by Open AI's ChatGPT.

Investors have been concerned that Bing, which has long been in a secondary position in the internet search field, could weaken Alphabet-C's monopoly position in internet search and related advertising revenue.

However, on Wednesday, Alphabet-C struck back.

At the company's annual I/O developer conference, Alphabet-C unveiled new conversational features for its core search engine, as well as the widespread rollout of the Bard chatbot for English speakers.

Alphabet-C has launched what it calls "search-generated experiences," which use artificial intelligence to provide lengthy summary responses for certain queries.

The upgraded version of Alphabet-C search allows users to ask follow-up questions, more like a chatbot than a traditional internet search. The new version of Alphabet-C will initially be accessed through an experimental project called "Search Labs."

Alphabet-C also said that Bard will soon expand from supporting only English to supporting 40 languages.

In addition, Alphabet-C has released a second generation, which will be included in Bard, Alphabet-C, Google Docs, and other software. The company said the new model was trained on data from more than 100 languages.

Alphabet-C said the new model's dataset includes scientific papers and web pages with mathematical expressions, which "improves its ability to reason logically, use common sense, and perform math." In Alphabet-C's own words, PaLM2 performs better than GPT-4 in some aspects.

Alphabet-C also said that PaLM2 "was pre-trained on a large corpus of publicly available source code," which allows the software to write code in various languages, including Python and JavaScript, as well as more professional languages like Prolog, FORTRAN, and Verilog.

Alphabet-C also said that Bard will soon be upgraded to include images in its query responses, and will use Google Lens image search to include images in its prompt boxes.

The company will also make it easier for other applications to be embedded in Bard, including Adobe Firefly, Kayak, OpenTable, ZipRecruiter, Instacart, Wolfram, and Khan Academy.

Alphabet and Pixel devices take a back seat

As the main focus of previous developer conferences, this year Alphabet and the new Pixel devices took a back seat due to the overwhelming presence of AI. On the hardware side, Alphabet-C has released its first foldable phone, the Pixel Fold, equipped with its self-developed Tensor G2 chip. It folds inward horizontally, with a 7.6-inch 22081840 resolution screen on the inside and a 5.8-inch 20921080 screen on the outside. The weight of the phone is 283g.

In terms of imaging capabilities, the Pixel Fold has a rear camera with a 48-megapixel main lens, a 10-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 10-megapixel periscope telephoto lens, with a starting price of $1799.

On Wednesday, Alphabet-C rose more than 4%, reaching a new high since August 2022. It rose another 1% before the market opened on Thursday.