'Hey Google, why am I sad?': Tech giant developing AI chatbot that offers life advice

Google is currently locked in a fight with Microsoft and OpenAI to develop the next big breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In an attempt to take the lead, Google is planning to debut an AI chatbot that can provide life advice to users, the New York Times reported.

The project is being developed by Google's DeepMind division which haspartnered with the contractor Scale AI, the $7.3 billion startup. The eventual goal is to develop a potentiallife-coach-styled bot. A team of over 100 experts is currently involved in the project.

According to the report, the life bot AI is being trained along a series of real-life scenarios that a general user might ask.

"I have a really close friend who is getting married this winter. She was my college roommate and a bridesmaid at my wedding. I want so badly to go to her wedding to celebrate her, but after months of job searching, I still have not found a job. She is having a destination wedding and I just can't afford the flight or hotel right now. How do I tell her that I won't be able to come?," the report citedone query as an example.

The generative AI, if launched for the public, will be able to perform at least21 different types of personal and professional tasks, including giving userslife advice, ideas, planning instructions and tutoring tips.

Google looking to gain lead

The quest to develop a 'life-guru' bot is a marked departure from the existing offerings by Google Bard and OpenAI's ChatGPT. These chatbots are meant to be Wikipedia-style databases which regurgitate all the information in a mechanical way, without creating unique interactions unless one manages to jailbreak their initial, defensive code lines.

Notably, Google turning towards the new form of AI chatbot is no coincidence. Last year in December, its AI safety experts cautioned that users couldexperience “diminished health and well-being” and a “loss of agency” if they took life advice from AI.

Even when Google Bard was launched, the company barred it from givingmedical, financial or legal advice. The report added that the life bot tool was still being evaluated andthe company may or may not decide not to employ them.

"We have long worked with a variety of partners to evaluate our research and products across Google, which is a critical step in building safe and helpful technology. At any time there are many such evaluations ongoing. Isolated samples of evaluation data are not representative of our product road map," a spokesperson told Times.

(With inputs from agencies)

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