In order to compete with OpenAI, known for its ChatGPT, and Midjourney, which was launched by the San Francisco-based independent research lab Midjourney, Inc., Google announced on the 12th of this month that it is integrating generative AI into its search service.

They are launching a new generative search experience called the Search Generative Experience (SGE), known as Bard.

This service is initially available in the United States and is only open to users aged 18 and above.

Those who meet the criteria can activate it through the iOS or Android Google app, as well as the desktop version of Chrome.

Competing Against Midjourney

The SGE feature is free.

Just make sure you're signed in to your Google account with "Incognito mode" turned off.

Click the Labs icon at the top right of the page.

Read the Terms of Service for the experiment, and if you agree, select "I agree."

Finally, click "Try an example."

However, Midjourney has been a paid service up to this point.

Users can operate it through Discord's bot commands.

Currently, there are two subscription payment options available: monthly or yearly.

Why is SGE Free?

Midjourney was launched in July 2022, but around April this year, it announced the discontinuation of its free services, now requiring a paid subscription.

The reason is the high demand, with some registered accounts abusing the free AI generation service, causing the system to become overloaded and impacting the rights of paying users, hence the cessation of the free trial.

SGE is currently only available in the United States, but it is believed to be in a trial phase.

It should soon be released for free in different regions, aiming to capture a share of the AI market.

After all, this is a significant breakthrough for Google in AI development, and the demand for this service is substantial.

Copyright and Social Responsibility

To prevent AI-generated images from violating usage terms, images generated through SGE will be accompanied by original data labels and watermarks, indicating they were produced by generative AI.

Additionally, Google is set to launch a new tool called 'About This Image' to assist users in assessing the context and credibility of images.

It will display the time when Google first came across a similar version of the image or show other web pages where similar images are used, such as in news articles or fact-checking sites.

These measures collectively reinforce copyright concerns in order to respect other creators.

If SGE is made available to users in other regions in the future, like ChatGPT, it is expected to be warmly received by the extensive community of Google users.

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