Google must move, and it must also move quickly, when it comes to the implementation of solutions based on artificial intelligence in its huge catalog of products. The search engine company, which with considerable effort over the years has managed to become synonymous with innovation for many people, is seeing how Microsoft has achieved the unimaginable just a few months ago, and it is threatening its position in this regard. .
As we already told you at the time, Google decided to announce Bard just a few hours before Microsoft did the same with the new Bing and Edge. However, perhaps because their development was not as mature as that of Redmond (Google’s AI announcements were expected to take place at Google I/O 2023, where we still expect a lot in this regard), perhaps because they are aware of what is at stake with a failed launch, or perhaps for other reasons and/or a combination thereof with those previously mentioned, Microsoft has been advancing at a devilish pace for several weeks now, while Google still has us at the ready. wait.
Thus, it is understandable that the company is sticking out its chest, in recent weeks, about his long relationship with artificial intelligence, as they have been working in this field for many years and have made some really important contributions. But of course, this does not satisfy the demand of common users, who want to see how the solutions based on it come to their day to day. Google also talks about what they call scaling AI responsibly, a position that is also defensible, but one that can nonetheless have a negative impact on its image.
Aware of this, and in the absence of being able to open their solutions to all users, they have once again made an announcement along the lines of what served as the official presentation of Bard. I am speaking, specifically, of this publication, in which Google announces plans to bring AI-powered solutions to Gmail, Docs and other Google Workspace services, among others. A movement that will start in Gmail and Docs. Specifically, these are the announced functions, as explained in said publication:
- Compose, reply, summarize, and prioritize your Gmail
- Brainstorming, proofreading, writing and rewriting in Docs
- Bring your creative vision to life with automatically generated images, audio, and video in Slides
- Moving from raw data to insights and analysis through auto completion, formula building, and contextual categorization in Sheets
- Generate new backgrounds and capture notes in Meet
- Enable workflows to get things done in Chat
The proposal is undoubtedly ambitious, as it could completely change the way in which we use these services. So, it is quite likely that you are wondering when and how you can start testing the new features, right? Well, here comes the bad news, since, and in this is what coincides with Bard’s announcement, Google affirms that the beta will be released “in a few weeks” and that it will be carried out with “trusted evaluators on an ongoing basis throughout the year«. In other words: except for surprises, we will still have to wait several months before it begins to reach more users, even in test mode.
Remember that Microsoft’s plans include integrating Prometheus into Microsoft Office, so we can expect functions similar to those announced today by Google. And although the search engine’s proposal is truly interesting, either they step on the accelerator or they will see how Microsoft also overtakes them on this point.
