Even Google Insiders Are Questioning Bard AI Chatbot’s Usefulness
By Davey Alba
For months, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Discord Inc. have run an invitation-only chat for heavy users of Bard, Google’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot. Google product managers, designers and engineers are using the forum to openly debate the AI tool's effectiveness and utility, with some questioning whether the enormous resources going into development are worth it...
Daniel Griffin, a recent Ph.D. graduate from University of California at Berkeley who studies web search and joined the Discord group in September, said it isn’t uncommon for open source software and small search engine tools to have informal chats for enthusiasts. But Griffin, who has written critically about how Google shapes the public’s interpretations of its products [with current Ph.D. student Emma Lurie], said he felt “uncomfortable” that the chat was somewhat secretive.
The Bard Discord chat may just be a “non-disclosed, massively-scaled and long-lasting focus group or a community of AI enthusiasts, but the power of Google and the importance of open discussion of these new tools gave me pause,” he added, noting that the company’s other community-feedback efforts, like the Google Search Liaison, were more open to the public...
Daniel Griffin graduated from the I School's Ph.D. program in May 2023. His research focused on conceptions of search engines, web search practices, and their entanglement with societal values.
Emma Lurie is a Ph.D. Candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Her research interests include online election information, U.S. technology policy, and research ethics for computer science.
