Google said it is testing new life coach AI to provide helpful advice to people
In recent months, Google has been consistently rolling out generative AI technology, such as launching the Search engine experience and give Chrome the ability to summarize news articles. In the future, the tech giant may take artificial intelligence to a new frontier: offering life advice.
This information comes from a recently published article in the New York Times with details on the company’s next big AI project. DeepMind, Google’s own artificial intelligence research lab, has been testing new technology that could effectively turn generative AI “into a personal life coach.” They state that DeepMind is trying to find a way to get their model to perform “at least 21 different types of personal and professional tasks”. As we noted, this includes giving life advice, such as “ideas, planning instructions, (plus) tutoring tips.”
For example, you could ask the chatbot to drum up a workout or meal plan if you want to lose weight. Or maybe you can ask for suggestions regarding specific situations, such as what to do if you can’t have a friend’s wedding.
Intimate knowledge
Technically, these described functions are already present google bard, so this is nothing new. What’s different, according to the piece, is that the company is trying to improve the AI’s ability to “answer intimate questions about challenges in people’s lives.” To make all this possible, DeepMind apparently “brought together 100 experts with PhDs in various fields… (to) assess the tool’s responses”.
Presumably, this group also includes mental health professionals. The problem is that the New York Times doesn’t give concrete details. We don’t have an opinion from any of the experts on exactly how good Google’s life coach chatbot is right now.
Still, the main takeaway is whatever the tech giant is cooking up, it seems pretty substantial.
An AI arms race
What’s particularly interesting about this life coach project is that it goes against company policy. Google’s Bard Privacy Help Hub recommends not relying on the chatbot’s answers for “medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice.”
So, why the about face? The New York Times theorizes that this could be part of an effort to overcome rivals like OpenAI. As noted in the piece, companies and start-ups have been engaged in an AI arms race ever since ChatGPT launched, competing for the top spot in the industry. Google essentially creating a “robotherapist” could be the edge it needs.
However, there is a chance that this technology will never see the light of day. A spokeswoman for DeepMind told the Times that developers are indeed testing the AI, but evaluations are not indicative of a “product roadmap.”
We will say that the idea of an AI that can help create robust training plans or tutor people in a skill sounds pretty useful. Hopefully, a breakthrough will come from these experiments.