Google removed the wait-list for its latest generative artificial intelligence tool Bard and introduced the technology in more than 180 countries and territories.
The company is wrestling Microsoft-backed Bing and ChatGPT for a greater share of the generative AI market.
Originally launched in February, the new conversational AI service focuses on creating innovative ways to engage with information, from language and images to videos and audio.
In March, the Alphabet-owned company opened limited public access to select consumers in the US and the UK.
Besides English, Bard is now available in Japanese and Korean, and it will support 40 languages soon, the company announced at its Google I/O conference in Mountain View, California, on Wednesday.
“We are rapidly improving Bard … adding to its capabilities … we are doing it very responsibly," said the company's chief executive, Sundar Pichai.
"It now supports a wide range of programming … and it’s gotten much smarter at reasoning."
Google said it moved Bard to PaLM 2, a more advanced and capable large language model that has enabled many of the recent improvements — including advanced maths, reasoning skills and coding capabilities.
Google’s Pathways Language Model (PaLM) is considered to be a major advancement in generative AI.
It enables data scientists to efficiently train a single model across systems that is capable of understanding hundreds of languages and generation tasks.
“This early momentum is just the beginning … coming soon, Bard will become more visual both in its responses and your prompts,” said Sissie Hsiao, vice president at Google and general manager for Google Assistant and Bard.
Users will be able to ask Bard questions such as, "What are some must-see sights in Dubai?" — and in addition to text answers, the technology will also offer visuals to give users a better sense and context of what they are exploring.
Users will also be able to include images — alongside text — in their prompts, allowing them to boost their creativity and receive more detailed responses.
Generative AI uses machine learning to produce content such as text, images, video and audio. It can generate novel content, in the right context, instead of merely analysing or acting on the existing data.
The global generative AI market is expected to reach $188.62 billion by 2032, growing at an annual rate of more than 36 per cent, from $8.65 billion last year, data from The Brainy Insights market research company showed.
The North American region dominated the market in last year.
Generative AI could also drive a seven per cent — or almost $7 trillion — increase in the global economy and lift productivity growth by 1.5 percentage points over a 10-year period, Goldman Sachs estimated.
“Large language models are still a nascent technology with known limitations," Ms Hsiao said.
"So as we further expand, we will continue to maintain our high standards for quality and local nuances while also ensuring we adhere to our AI principles."
Google has also launched two more export actions to allow users to move Bard’s responses into Gmail and Docs.
“We will introduce new ways to fuel your imagination and curiosity by integrating the capabilities of Google apps and services you may already use — Docs, Drive, Gmail, Maps and others — right into the Bard experience," Ms Hsiao said.
“You will always be in control of your privacy settings when deciding how you want to use these tools and extensions."
In the coming months, Google will also integrate Adobe Firefly (creative generative AI models) into Bard to help users turn their ideas into high-quality images that can be then edited in Adobe Express.
Launched in December, San Francisco-based research company OpenAI’s ChatGPT comes up with human-like responses to prompts in seconds, based on information publicly available on the internet.
The program has become hugely popular, while also raising concerns about what it is being used for and its accuracy.
Google launched Bard in February. In the same month, Microsoft announced its new AI-powered Bing search engine that aims to deliver better searches, more complete answers, a new chat experience and the ability to generate fresh content.
Last month, Russia's largest lender Sberbank launched its own generative AI tool, GigaChat.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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May 2017
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September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
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