Amid the current worldwide frenzy to test, challenge and abuse the most evocative AI chatbot, more alternatives are on their way

With the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT currently making waves around the world for amazing the general public with hitherto unseen levels of artificial creativity, Google has on 15 March 2022 launched new APIs and products for its cloud and workspace users to compete in the technology.

For developers looking to build applications with generative AI, the PaLM application programming interface (API) offers access to the firm’s large language models of different sizes to be progressively added. The API also comes with an intuitive tool to help developers quickly prototype ideas and, over time, the tool will have features for prompt engineering; synthetic data generation and custom-model tuning.

Meanwhile, the firm’s Cloud AI portfolio has been beefed up with two generative AI features to help developers and organizations access enterprise-level safety, security, privacy, as well as integrate with their existing Google Cloud solutions:

    • Generative AI support in Vertex AI: This feature offers the simplest way for data science teams to take advantage of foundation models like the PaLM API in a way that provides them with the most choice and control. Generative AI support in Vertex AI will initially provide foundation models for generating text and images, and over time with audio and video. Google Cloud customers will have the ability to discover models; create and modify prompts; fine tune them with their own data; and deploy applications that use these powerful new technologies.
    • Generative AI App Builder: This tool is aimed at providing the fastest way for developers to jumpstart the creation of generative AI applications such as bots, chat apps, digital assistants, custom search engines, and more, with limited technical expertise required. With API access to Google’s foundation models, developers can use out-of-the-box templates to jumpstart the creation of gen apps in minutes or hours.

In addition to the above, the firm is a new initiative that helps independent software vendor (ISV) partners get started with building applications using its Cloud AI services. The initiative provides dedicated access to Google Cloud expertise, training, and co-marketing support to help partners build capacity and go to market.

To enable more AI-first startups, the firm is also expanding the Google for Startups Cloud Program, with exclusive benefits for AI startups. Interested AI startups can now apply to join the program.

Finally, Google has unveiled its vision to incorporate AI as a collaborative partner via apps such as Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Meet, and Chat. For a start, the firm is embedding generative AI in its Docs and Gmail apps to help people in their writing tasks.

According to Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud, these generative AI experiences in Google Workspace will be rolled out only to trusted testers throughout the year before eventually launch to the general public: “Generative AI is an emerging and rapidly evolving technology with complex challenges. That’s why we invite external and internal testers to pressure test new experiences, and why we have AI Principles to guide this work. These principles also serve as an ongoing commitment to our customers worldwide who rely on our products to build and grow their businesses safely with AI.”