What to Know Before Using Bard, Google's "AI Experiment"
Inappropriate responses are the least of your concerns
It costs $20 per month to have reliable access to Open AI’s ChatGPT, the large language model (LLM) chatbot that has swept the world. At the same time, I’m starting to see more press about Bard, Google’s self-billed “AI experiment,” as well as a news writing tool reportedly called Genesis internally that is being pitched to newsrooms. If you’re interested in keeping up with how something like this can potentially help your career, Bard is currently free to use. But — like basically everything — there’s a data and privacy cost to doing so.
The homepage reads, “Bard is an experiment and may give inaccurate or inappropriate responses. You can help make Bard better by leaving feedback.” According to the terms and conditions, which you can also find on the Bard FAQ, Google will collect your conversations, location info and more to study for as long as 18 months. You can toggle that to three or 36 months, but can’t remove it altogether.
The company assures that your conversations are anonymized before being read by humans, but still notes that you shouldn’t use personal identifying info with Bard. Do not tell it any secrets. And don’t think it’s a specialized expert.
“Don’t rely on Bard’s responses as medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice,” is a warning that seems significant.
I don’t currently use chatbots to assist with research, writing or ideas in my high-volume freelance writing life, but as I’ve experienced the loss of some significant clients to automated writing, I do want to keep an open mind to them and keep up with what’s happening. Like me, maybe you’ll find it interesting to research how this can be used to your advantage in an ethical and assistive way as it is refined, and also how to develop a b.s. detector for what it may give you in this formative stage.
Further reading about Bard:
• Bard FAQ [Google]
• Bard Privacy [Google]
• 11 Smart Prompts to Do More With Bard [Wired]
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