AI chatbots have dramatically revolutionised the way we interact with technology. With the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, this year marks a significant milestone in the evolution of chatbots.

Tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Apple are in a race, each developing unique AI technologies - from ChatGPT and Bard to Siri and SGE. These platforms have not only altered our online interactions but have also influenced consumer behaviour. From personalising user experiences to influencing how we search online, these advancements in AI are rapidly redefining our relationship with technology.

History of AI Chatbots

Travel back to the 1950s when Alan Turing, a distinguished code-breaker from World War II, issued a challenge that would shape the future of technology. His proposition: to design a program capable of replicating human conversation so convincingly that it would be indistinguishable from a genuine human interaction.

This challenge resulted in the creation of two chatbots, E.L.I.Z.A. and PARRY. These represented a psychotherapist and a patient diagnosed with schizophrenia, respectively. Their interaction in 1973 marked a significant milestone in the annals of chatbot history, exhibiting a level of sophistication previously unseen in artificial intelligence.

Fast forward to the present day, and Turing's challenge remains a hotly debated subject. Notably, two chatbots have claimed to pass the Turing Test. In 2014, a bot called Eugene Goostman, designed to emulate a 15-year-old Ukrainian boy, made headlines. More recently, Google's AI LaMDA sparked controversy in 2022 when it persuaded a Google engineer that it was capable of experiencing emotions. These developments, while impressive, continue to fuel the quest for the definitive chatbot that can flawlessly mimic human conversation.

The chatbot narrative is far from over; indeed, it continues to unravel in intriguing ways.

Today's AI Chatbots

Fast forward to 2023, a year that has arguably revolutionised the way society interacts with Chatbots, sparked through the launch of Open AI’s ChatGPT, which has become the fastest growing consumer application of all time!

Below I dive into 3 chatbots being developed by the biggest tech companies.

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Open AI’s & Microsoft's ChatGPT

Open AI was founded by Elon Musk (who left due to Tesla conflicts), Sam Altman and others in 2015. Open AI was created in part because of the founders' concerns about the potential for catastrophe resulting from carelessness and misuse of general-purpose AI. In 2018, the company introduced the world to its groundbreaking innovation, the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), a neural network designed to mirror human brain function. OpenAI used large datasets as input to train this model, enabling it to generate outputs - responses to users' queries. The public release of ChatGPT in 2022 set the internet abuzz.

ChatGPT has since revolutionised how people interact online. Unlike Google, which provides generic SEO-driven responses, GPT furnishes direct, personalised answers to user questions. It has morphed into an indispensable tool for a multitude of tasks, from drafting emails to developing business plans or even coding websites.

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OpenAI's open-sourced API has inspired entrepreneurs to construct novel applications on top of this revolutionary tech, fostering a range of advancements from Agent GPT to WhatsApp ChatGPT. Despite ChatGPT's notable advantages, including improved natural language comprehension and swift response times, it faces challenges, particularly in training the models to handle diverse topics appropriately and avoiding inherent biases in training data.

Google’s Bard & SGE

Bard, Google's own answer to ChatGPT, boasts the unique advantage of accessing real-time internet data, contrasting with GPT's reliance on prior data (unless plugin access is granted). First introduced on February 6, 2023, powered by Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), it faced criticism prompting substantial updates. On May 10, 2023, Google reintroduced Bard, now powered by the robust language model PaLM 2, along with enhanced features, garnering much favourable feedback.

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In its quest for optimization, Google has also committed to augmenting its search via Search Generative Experience (SGE). Employing generative AI, SGE enables a more tailored search experience for users, intensifying the power of Google's search engine and posing a challenge to its existing SEO framework.

Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) simplifies complex search queries by using generative AI to handle the bulk of the information sorting. For instance, with a detailed question like choosing a family-and-dog-friendly park, SGE can break down and process the query, saving you the trouble. Additionally, it suggests follow-up questions and maintains context across the conversation, facilitating a more intuitive search experience. To access SGE users can sign up to the waitlist through Google Search Labs.

Bard and SGE shares similar pros and cons to other large language models.

Apple’s Siri

Let's travel back to 2011, when Siri first entered the scene! Siri's arrival significantly changed our relationship with our phones, making them more accessible and promoting the use of voice assistants (think Alexa).

Siri operates as a natural language model (NLM), unlike Chat GPT and Bard, which are large language models (LLMs). Essentially, LLMs are a beefed-up version of NLMs, trained on extensive text datasets. Though Siri can perform similar functions, such as text generation, language translation, and question answering, it doesn't quite match up to LLMs in terms of accuracy and capability.

The smaller data sizes used to train NLMs like Siri may limit its effectiveness and sophistication compared to LLMs. While Apple hasn't shared specific plans to create an LLM for their products, CEO Tim Cook's comment that they view "AI as huge" and will keep integrating it thoughtfully into their products, combined with recent job postings for generative AI experts, suggests that they might be moving in that direction.

Chat GPT can now be integrated into Siri, learn how to here.

Conclusion

The leaps in development we've seen from the advent of Turing's challenge to the modern marvels of ChatGPT, Bard, and Siri are just the beginning of further innovations.

However, as these chatbots continue to revolutionise our online interactions, they're also driving a significant shift in consumer behaviour. Brands, now more than ever, must stay nimble, constantly adapting and evolving to keep pace with these changes.

Amidst the excitement for the next breakthrough, we must also tread with caution. The ethics and implications of AI, from privacy concerns to the avoidance of inherent biases, must remain at the forefront of the conversation. Our journey with AI chatbots is not just about technical advancements or efficiency; it's about shaping a future where technology serves us responsibly and humanely.