If you’re trying to keep up with the latest AI trends, you might be keen to know what Lamda is, and whether Google are working on a chatbot.

LaMDA, or the Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is a conversational language model developed by Google and powered by artificial intelligence. With the buzz surrounding ChatGPT, AI chatbots have been pushed into the limelight. Many people are curious about the other AI language models available, especially as high traffic on the Chat GPT website has meant server capacity is often reached, blocking people from using the service. That’s where alternatives like LaMDA step in.

Google’s offering has been around for a while. The technology was made available to the public back in August 2022. However, it was and is still limited to small groups of people at a time in the ‘Test Kitchen’ app which lets you access the chatbot. This means it is not widely available in the way Chat GPT is at the moment. However, the technology is being used to develop Google’s Apprentice Bard chatbot, which might be available soon.

Will we see a LaMDA chatbot?

It’s looking like Google are working on a chatbot using LaMDA technology, under the name of Apprentice Bard. There’s not a lot of information on when this will be released, but we would guess sometime this year.

LaMDA uses artificial intelligence to generate answers to queries inputted by the user. There’s been some controversy around the service, as it has been known to mimic hate speech and conspiracy theories. An engineer was fired from Google last year for stating that the model had become sentient!

The service can engage in dialogue with the user, with answers using information gathered from the internet. This means the speech mimics that of internet users across the web, using machine learning. It uses information from sites like Wikipedia and Reddit, whilst also using computer algorithms to solve answers to questions about physics and maths.

Final Thoughts

LaMDA is a language model which uses AI technology to mimic human speech. This makes it pretty similar to ChatGPT. However, there is no official open chatbot which the public can currently interact with. The technology is just a model, not a public service. This could change, however, with the possible forthcoming Apprentice Bard chatbot, which Google is using LaMDA technology to develop.

About the Author

Gloria Coles

As a tech and AI writer for PC Guide, Gloria is interested in what new technology means for the future of consumer electronics and digital and broadcast journalism.