Google Built Chatbot Before ChatGPT but Held It Back

The Story in Brief

Google had an internal ChatGPT-style chatbot before OpenAI released ChatGPT, former Google chief scientist Jeff Dean said in a podcast video reported by Hindustan Times. Google employees used it during pandemic lockdowns, including as a lunchtime conversation partner.

Dean said Google did not release the system because it sometimes produced inaccurate search-related answers and offensive content. He also said the company initially underestimated demand for uses beyond search, such as drafting notes and summarising documents. Dean spent 27 years at Google and helped develop systems including MapReduce, Bigtable, Spanner and TensorFlow.

The Indian Opinion

The easy story is that Google lost the AI race through fear, or that safety concerns were merely an excuse. Dean’s account supports neither claim on its own. An internal prototype that misstates facts and produces offensive replies is not automatically ready for millions of users, while poor judgement about writing and summarising tools can still cost a company dearly. The useful test is how quickly today’s chatbots reduce those errors without hiding them from users.

Source: hindustantimes.com

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