#34: Google Announces Bard, Microsoft Bing Is Now Powered by OpenAI, and Cohere In Talks to Raise Funding at a $6B Valuation

This week on The Marketing AI Show, Paul takes the show on the road—to San Francisco for Jasper’s GenAI Conference—while Mike is here in Cleveland. The big news is Bard, Bing, and a $6 Billion valuation. Suddenly, it’s ChatGPT against the world. Google responds to ChatGPT with its conversational AI tool, Bard. Google just announced an experimental conversational AI tool named Bard. Bard uses Google’s LaMDA language model to provide natural language answers to search queries. Think of it like ChatGPT, but backed by all the knowledge and information that Google’s search engine has cataloged over the last couple of decades. The announcement of Bard—a response to OpenAI and ChatGPT—prompted some critics to say the rollout was rushed, while others said they moved too slowly after ChatGPT took center stage in December and January. If you missed it, the demo didn’t quite go as planned. OpenAI gives Bing a new lease on life. Microsoft’s Bing is getting more attention now than its previous 14 years combined. The latest version of the search engine is powered by OpenAI, complete with ChatGPT-like conversational capabilities. Bing can now respond to searches and queries in natural language, like ChatGPT, and use up-to-date information, like Google’s Bard release. Kevin Roose, technology writer at the New York Times, took the new capabilities for a test drive and was impressed. Will Bing and OpenAI make Edge, Microsoft’s browser, interesting for customers? Cohere answers the call for ChatGPT for the enterprise. Major AI startup, Cohere, is in talks to raise money at a $6 billion valuation and bring ChatGPT-like capabilities to businesses. Established in 2019 by former researchers at Alphabet/Google, Cohere is a big player in the world of AI. The foundational language AI technology allows businesses to incorporate large language models into their work. The group is now in talks to raise hundreds of millions at a $6 billion valuation, reports Reuters, as the AI arms race heats up. Cohere is no stranger to the VC world, having already raised $170 million from venture capital funds and AI leaders like Geoff Hinton and Fei-Fei Li. The appeal is the company’s focus on building for the enterprise, with an emphasis on real-world applications for their technology. Listen to this week’s episode on your favorite podcast player, and be sure to explore the links below for more thoughts and perspectives on these important topics.