As the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates, tech innovators are rolling out new AI-powered web tools designed to empower you to achieve more online. For businesses and marketing professionals, adopting AI is a hot topic of conversation and debate, with opinions and positions running the gamut from “not on my watch” to “great, how soon can we replace our corporate communications and marketing staff?”
One thing most AI-watchers agree on is that big changes and disruptions are just getting started with more upheaval expected across industries and sectors in the coming months and years. There’s less agreement on how to take advantage of AI and its growing list of business use cases. As options proliferate, choosing the best AI tools for your specific business objectives can be challenging. Read on for a breakdown of how you can get the most out of the best new AI options available starting with Google’s updated Chrome browser.
Google answers Microsoft’s ChatGPT with Bard and Chrome extensions
You may have noticed recent AI enhancements to popular web browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. The Edge browser recently got upgrades featuring AI made by OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, which was acquired by Microsoft as the online AI competition intensifies. Google has now improved its Chrome browser using new extensions powered by AI.
A Google Chrome browser extension is a small software program that adds new features or changes the way Chrome works. Extensions do handy things like block ads, apply aesthetic themes, add new functionality to websites and enhance privacy options, among many other uses.
In addition to rolling out Chrome’s new AI enhancements, Google has also unveiled its first ChatGPT competitor, which it labeled an “experiment.” The tech giant has dubbed its large language model (LLM) AI chatbot, Bard, in a nod to Shakespeare. Bard and Chrome’s new AI extensions can work together or apart to help users with a variety of tasks, such as writing, brainstorming, researching and automating simple tasks like summarizing or translating text, saving time and money. Best of all, this game-changing chatbot tech is in your browser and works just like typing a query into a search engine.
Asking Bard to list its main benefits for achieving business objectives provided a robust 411-word endorsement of its capabilities, neatly composed with bullets listing specific examples. Highlights include increasing productivity and reducing costs by making it easier and faster to generate reports and proposals, write emails, build presentations and produce marketing content like social posts, blogs, video scripts and anything else that requires language composition.
Bard also claims it will boost innovation by generating ideas for new products, features and services. It can even research competitors and new markets. Bard answers questions comprehensively, even if they are open ended, challenging or strange. Its accuracy isn’t perfect but it’s improving quickly. Creative writing is another strength. Bard generates creative text in many formats, including poems, code and musical pieces.
Like a search engine, you may not get your desired results on the first query, but since all it takes is a one-sentence prompt, you can compare multiple responses in just minutes and select the text and information that works best for your purposes.
Microsoft’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard LLMs are quick learners
Perhaps the most impressive (or worrying) feature shared by the two big AI-powered LLMs shaking up the business world is that they are still under development and improving with public use. Both AI platforms are trained on and informed by a massive dataset of text and code that grows with every user interaction through the amazing power of machine learning (ML).
With continuous feedback from users providing an ever-expanding and virtually limitless trove of data for improving functionality, these two super chatbots are like newborns who learned language while still in the womb, and now their education is poised for exponential growth.
But do they really have “the potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate” as Bard claimed when asked about its workplace benefits? Only time will tell, but tech-savvy marketers are not waiting to find out. We’re pioneering this experimental tech and finding that as LLMs make rapid advances, they’re proving increasingly capable of handling both mundane tasks and complex creative tasks.
Marketers aren’t the only ones grappling with the advent of AI. Hollywood film and television writers went on strike, insisting on job protections against AI writing in their guild’s collective bargaining agreement.
Meanwhile, Congress called the CEO of ChatGPT to testify in a hearing as lawmakers mull over the possibility of regulating AI, something the European Union has already started doing. When Google released Bard on a global scale, the company skipped the EU due to Google’s regulatory compliance concerns in that huge market.
In countries where Bard is available, early adopters are enjoying expanded capabilities. Just as each new version of ChatGPT has unveiled additional use cases and possibilities, within days of its public release, Google added powerful new functionality to Bard.
Users can now ask Bard to code and debug for them in more than 20 programming languages, including C++, JavaScript and Python. Bard now explains code snippets in plain sentences, helping you understand how your code produces the output that it does. If you want images converted into text or text to images, Bard can now do that too.
Here come the AI browser extensions
If you want AI power built into your browser that doesn’t require having ChatGPT or Bard running in a separate tab, now users of Google’s Chrome browser can upgrade to AI-powered extensions. This new breed of browser extension uses AI to help you with things like data analysis and visualization, security and privacy, online experience personalization and tailored recommendations, among many other new or significantly enhanced capabilities.
One of the most popular AI-powered extensions for Chrome is Jasper, a writing assistant that helps users with everything from brainstorming ideas to editing their work for grammar, spelling, punctuation and clarity. Jasper is powered by GPT-3, allowing your Chrome browser to generate text that is both accurate and creative.
Synthesia is another popular AI-powered extension for Chrome. It’s a video generation platform that lets you create videos with AI avatars. Synthesia is powered by the same tech as Jasper, so it can generate realistic and engaging videos. The Speak AI extension automagically converts text to speech, so you can listen to your onscreen text instead of reading it.
Otter.ai transcribes your audio and video recordings, making it easy to search and find specific recorded content. Scalenut helps writers level up and scale up their content by providing grammar suggestions, style tips and plagiarism checks. The INK extension helps you write by suggesting topics, generating outlines and providing feedback on your writing.
Getting started with Chrome’s new AI extensions is easy
You can download Chrome extensions from Google’s Chrome Web Store, which has reems of free extensions to choose from. To install an extension, select the one you want and click “Add to Chrome.” Once installed, you’ll find it on the Chrome toolbar where you can click its icon to open it.
As AI technology continues its strange and perhaps terrifying growth, we can expect to see even more powerful and innovative features and applications that make many business tasks quicker and easier without sacrificing quality.
With our team of dedicated B2B marketers tracking and leveraging AI trends as they emerge, Elevation Marketing can help your enterprise take advantage of AI’s rapidly evolving capabilities. We empower companies like yours to achieve transformative results.
Contact us today to discuss leveling up your B2B digital content with the growing power of AI.
