Google’s new AI chatbot seems boring. Maybe that’s the point.

AI-powered chatbot, Bard, is here. The company rolled it out to the public on Tuesday, and anyone with a Google account can join the waitlist to get access. Though it’s a standalone tool for now, Google is expected to put some of this technology into Google Search in the future.

But in contrast to other recent AI chatbot releases, you shouldn’t expect Bard to fall in love with you or threaten world domination. Bard is, so far, pretty boring.

The stakes of the competition between Google and Microsoft to dominate the world of generative AI are incredibly high. Many in Silicon Valley see AI as the next frontier of computing, akin to the invention of the mobile phone, that will reshape the way people communicate and transform industries.

Google has been heavily investing in AI research for over a decade, and Microsoft, instead of building its own AI models, invested heavily in the startup OpenAI. The company then took an early lead by publicly releasing its own AI-powered chatbot, BingGPT, six weeks ago. Now, Google seems to be playing catch-up.