The Excitement of Generative AI: How Google’s Products Can Benefit Your Org
Generative AI has been making a lot of headlines. From seemingly daily announcements by Google about new AI products and features, to broad generalizations in the news about how AI is going to revolutionize the way we work, it can all feel a bit overwhelming. To unpack all of this information, we’ll define what exactly makes generative AI new and exciting, summarize Google’s various gen AI products, and examine how each product might benefit your organization.
Machine Learning and Predictive AI
Machine learning and predictive AI are technologies that have been around for a while (decades, depending on your exact definition). Predictive AI excels at basic tasks, such as generating forecasts by looking at trends, or anticipating what word you might be most likely to use next based on the previous word. By comparison, generative AI is capable of answering a prompt with original, newly-generated content. The reason it can do this is because the machine learning algorithms that underpin generative AI (known as “Large Language Models”) are pre-trained using much larger datasets than in the past. These large models are fed information on the petabyte scale, resulting in hundreds of billions of parameters, and may also be optimized to generate specific types of content (i.e. creating text-based responses versus images).
Bard: Google’s Primary Consumer Generative AI
Google’s primary consumer generative AI offering is perhaps also the most well known: Bard. Bard is based on Google’s brand new PaLM 2 language model. Some of Bard’s myriad uses include writing suggestions, summaries of long texts, code debugging, and the creation of Google Sheets and spreadsheet formulas. You have the option to export these responses directly to Gmail, Google Docs, or Google Sheets. In Google Workspace, Bard can be enabled as an Early Access App. However, admins should bear in mind that Bard’s terms of use differ from the rest of Google Workspace. Google has made it clear that Bard can potentially provide incorrect information and it’s also not advisable to include private or confidential information in your Bard prompts. End user training on the appropriate use of Bard is strongly encouraged to reinforce data protection policies and drive adoption. The PaLM model that powers Bard is also being made available via the PaLM API and MakerSuite. Developers can build their own AI-enabled apps on top of PaLM. MakerSuite is currently in private preview and is being rolled out on a limited basis to users on a waitlist.
Duet AI for Google Workspace
If Bard’s collaborative productivity features sound great, but you’re a little leery of the consumer terms of service, then Duet AI for Google Workspace is the best option for your organization. Duet AI will incorporate an AI assistant directly into Gmail, Meet, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. With Duet AI, your employees can quickly compose emails, summarize documents, and even generate original images for use in Google Slides. Duet AI will be an add-on for Google Workspace (pricing TBA) and is currently only available for pre-order. However, if you’d like to get a feel for how these tools will work right away, we recommend using a personal Google account to sign up for Google Workspace Labs.
Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Platform
Finally, if you need to incorporate generative AI into a specific business workflow, Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform provides enterprise grade security and the ability to custom tune the model’s responses with your own data. Imagine having an advanced chatbot for customer service that uses natural language and provides answers based on all the information in your internal knowledge base, or an AI-powered compliance proof-reader that understands your policies and procedures and can identify potential violations in new documents. These are just two examples out of a nearly infinite number of possible use cases. Best of all, with Vertex, your data remains secure within the silo of your own Google Cloud Platform environment. Vertex Gen AI is currently in public preview, meaning you can use it now if you request access.
Getting Started with Google AI
As you can see, each of these AI tools has specific strengths, and therefore, before rolling them out it’s best to conduct a thorough analysis of use cases and business requirements. But you don’t have to go it alone! The team at Wursta can help facilitate discovery and design thinking sessions, craft an acceptable use policy, build an AI roadmap, and ultimately roll out generative AI to your end users. We can also help you develop custom, AI-enabled apps and interfaces using Vertex. As a Google Premier Partner, Wursta is committed to helping you stay on the cutting edge of AI advancements, so please reach out to us if you’d like to learn more about how Google generative AI can benefit your business.