In other news, Google's parent company, Alphabet, has ended its contract with Appen, the AI data firm responsible for training Google's Bard and other AI products. This decision, effective from March 19, will impact at least two thousand subcontracted workers and accounts for about one-third of Appen's revenue. Appen's revenue from Alphabet in 2023 was $82.8 million out of $273 million in total sales. The company faced financial challenges with a 30% revenue drop in 2023 and a stock plummet of over 99%.
Key takeaways:
- Google plans to introduce a subscription-based model for its Bard AI chatbot, Bard Advanced, aligning with the industry trend of exploring subscription models for enhanced features.
- Bard Advanced will have multimodal capabilities, adept at processing video, images, audio, and text seamlessly, and will be integrated with Google's mobile assistant.
- Google has terminated its contract with Appen, the AI data firm responsible for training Google's Bard and other AI products, impacting at least two thousand subcontracted workers.
- The subscription cost for Bard Advanced is anticipated to fall in the $10 to $20 per month range, aligning with prevailing AI chatbot pricing trends.