Google has been consistently enhancing its Bard chatbot to experiment with new capabilities and to add AI features to its extensive trove of services. The recent September 2023 update to Google Bard further expresses this intent, since the tech giant has gone ahead and linked Bard’s AI features to its applications such as Gmail, Docs, YouTube, Drive, and more. The current update makes it Bard’s most advanced and robust model yet, ever since the chatbot shifted to the capable PaLM 2 LLM. The integrations with other Google services also signal further progress in Google’s plans to provide more consumer-facing AI products. Apart from these updates, the new updates also make Bard more intuitive and coherent as compared to older versions, which were prone to the occasional bug or glitch.
Google has also made updates to allow users to have better control over the chatbot and its responses. Enhanced verification features to check Bard’s answers and added languages extend the chatbot’s accuracy as well as multilingual credentials, making it a potent tool for use across different regions in the world. Apart from Bard API, which remains in its beta stages, Google has also launched Bard Extensions, which shall allow Bard to search for content and potential information from Google’s other applications and services such as Maps, Flights, Workspace, and YouTube. The new updates make Google Bard AI an increasingly refined competitor to ChatGPT’s existing monopoly on the chatbot market.
An Overview of Google Bard’s Updates and New Features
Google Bard has an improved language model and offers enhanced coherence.
The most striking feature of the new Google Bard is that the language model chatbot now can connect to other applications on the Google suite. Much like how a plugin or API would work in ChatGPT’s case, users can now use the power of artificial intelligence to draw from other applications such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Flights, Google Hotels, and even YouTube. Bard can now draw insights from these everyday tools linked with your Google account and provide relevant information to users stored on these applications. Whether or not the information required by the user is stored on a single application, Bard will still be able to source it from across numerous platforms and provide it to the user as a coherent response. Bard’s LLM has also been updated to perform better, given that it already functions on the advanced PaLM 2 model which Google already uses to power projects like Med-PaLM 2. In the run-up to Google Gemini, PaLM 2 remains one of the most cutting-edge language models in the AI domain for the time being.
Since accuracy has always been a concern with AI models, Google has paid special attention to this aspect of chatbot usage and included thoughtful features to ensure Google Bard provides accurate information to user prompts. The firm has included an enhanced “Google It” feature within the Bard AI interface, allowing users to instantly fact-check Bard’s claims by instantly running a web search to clear any suspicions or verify the information they receive from the chatbot. Not only does this help users keep track of AI hallucinations and bias, but it also extends Google Bard AI’s credentials for AI safety and responsible AI features.
Implications of Google Bard’s Updates
Google intends on adding AI features to various consumer applications
Bard’s updates are perfectly positioned to attract maximum attention from Google’s existing as well as untapped clientele. The company is busy expanding numerous capabilities and intends to infuse AI into most of its offerings. With Google Assistant also witnessing integration with Bard’s features, the current set of updates is bound to bring numerous advantages to Google’s chatbot in its ongoing rivalry with OpenAI’s flagship models like GPT-4. Moreover, Google has also been extending the integration of AI features into its extant hardware offerings, with the latest editions of Google Pixel phones being capable of hosting advanced generative AI models for their users to utilize. The new features added to the chatbot also include a simplistic summarization feature that makes way for a simplified explanation of complex topics for users. Moreover, enhanced coherence also adds to Bard’s AI writing and coding capabilities.
As Google has introduced its AI-based productivity application titled “Duet,” Google has further incentive to link Bard with its trove of productivity applications and compete with rival firms like Microsoft who have introduced similar features and offered them to their clients. Apart from trip suggestions, driving routes, and flight prices, Bard can also help users collate information stored in documents and drive folders, or get recommendations from Bard to watch videos on a specific topic. Apart from AI-generated content, Bard is slowly also taking on the role of providing pointed suggestions as an assistant, given that Google uses these learnings to advance its AI assistant on handheld devices. The current set of updates has been especially significant since Google has begun exploring generative AI’s true potential and ability to link across platforms.
Competition and Success: Google Bard’s Potential
Google has been upscaling Bard’s capabilities to compete better with ChatGPT.
Google Bard has grown to become a reliable AI tool in the recent past. Given that the AI chatbot had a rocky start with a problematic launch, Google has certainly upgraded its chatbot to give ChatGPT stiff competition in its niche. As other rivals such as Anthropic, too, continue to make gains using their offerings such as Claude and Claude 2, Google remains intent on following its approach that involves providing consumable AI technologies. Though Bard still lags behind ChatGPT, usage continues to grow and Google plans on introducing a steady stream of AI applications for users to engage with. This includes the capable Google Codey as well as the experimental NotebookLM, which is still undergoing extensive user trials. Regardless of past problems, Google Bard remains a potent option for AI users and enthusiasts alike, especially since it can access information from multiple Google applications and sites.
FAQs
1. Is Google Bard free?
Yes, Google Bard is free and is available across 11 countries and in 40 languages. Users can deploy Bard for a variety of generative tasks and more.
2. Does Google Bard have extensions?
Yes, Google Bard has extensions that connect to other Google applications like Docs, Drive, YouTube, Maps, and Flights, among others. These enhance interoperability and allow users to utilize the power of AI in these applications and derive information from them.
3. Is Google Bard getting better?
Google Bard has progressively gotten better since its launch in early 2023. Various updates and improvements to the underlying language model have made the chatbot more reliable.