Google Bard is an artificial intelligence (AI) application developed by Google. It is also known as a conversational generative AI chatbot. Conversational generative AI chatbots enable computers to hold conversations with humans that are more natural and engaging than traditional chatbots. ChatGPT is a competing product, also well known and widely used. Additional products are rapidly coming to market.
As you have seen here on EO, I use these apps to access information on topics of interest. A good example is
this thread. I had never heard of Vivek Ramaswamy before he was mentioned by some here. Wanting to know more, and not wanting to spend a lot of time learning more, I used Google Bard. By making a few plain-language requests of Bard, I was able to obtain -- not in minutes or hours, but in seconds -- the information you see.
The information these AI apps use is stored in vast databases. The data is obtained and continuously updated as these apps gather it from the internet and other sources. These vast stores of information are combined with the vast computing power AI developers have created to bring these life-changing tools to people like you and me.
To aid my EO discussions, I use AI mostly as a super-efficient search engine.
In our business, my staff and I use it to develop marketing scripts, spreadsheets, employee communications (welcome letters, policy manuals, etc.), workout out plans for our personal fitness training clients, professional development plans for our staff, analyze data, and more. This technology is transformational. I spend some time each day learning more about it and developing more ways to apply it in our business.
These AI apps are transforming work and life at an astounding pace. A recent example is a CEO who announced he had laid off 90% of his company's customer support team and replaced them with an AI chatbot. He said that the chatbot was able to handle customer queries much faster and more efficiently than human employees, and that it had reduced customer support costs by 85%.
Another example is a task I did yesterday. I needed to write a carefully worded letter to someone about a sensitive topic with legal implications. Before, I would have put a couple hours into such a project. Yesterday, I had it done in 15 minutes with help from ChatGPT.
Yesterday at work, someone mentioned a book she had read and was recommending to the staff. After that meeting, I asked Google Bard to summarize that book and it did so in seconds. Wanting to know more, I asked Bard to expand the summary and it did that too. In a very short time, I was able to both learn what the book was about and decide if I wanted to read the whole thing (no purchase made). In the old days, I would have bought the book on this person's recommendation. Yesterday, with Bard's help, I learned the gist of the book and saved the purchase price.
Yet another example is parenting. I have two employees who have children. After I introduced them to these AI apps, they are now using them to quickly help them resolve common parenting issues. For example, when their kids are exhibiting certain behaviors the parents want to modify, they tell the AI apps the problem and ask for a solution. INSTANTLY, the apps provide advice and guidance that the parents can consider and decide if they want to use it or not. In many cases, the advice and guidance is something they would not have thought of themselves or quickly learned about from other sources. Several times, I have seen these parents express great relief as they become equipped with information they welcome and otherwise would not have had.
Moments ago, I just assigned one of our managers to develop a presentation for staff. The topic is new to this manager and I would not usually make such an assignment because I would not want to pay the manager to study for hours to master the topic and then develop the presentation. But by telling her to use ChatGPT, I know she can get this done in an hour or less and give a great presentation. She does not have to master the topic. ChatGPT has already done that. She only has to present, and lead a discussion on, the presentation slides ChatGPT provides.
As a final example, I just asked Bard to write me a Bible study plan I can use to lead a discussion about a Christian's Bible-based relationship with government. Bard gave me an excellent outline in seconds. I do not currently lead Bible studies, but if I did, I would make extensive use of AI to prepare for the meetings.
School teachers, especially home-school teachers, are using AI to prepare lesson plans. Lawyers are using it to help write their briefs. Hospitals are using it to replace human radiologists. The list is endless and rapidly expanding.
I urge everyone I know to learn more about AI. AI is changing everything.
