Hey there! Did you hear the news? Google has announced that its generative AI chatbot, Bard, is now available in English to users in over 180 countries. This means that people can now try out the chatbot and provide feedback to the company. The change was announced at Google I/O. John Krawczyk, a senior product director at Google, also revealed that Korean and Japanese versions of Bard would be rolled out soon, with additional languages to follow.

Google is committed to developing Bard responsibly, a recurring theme throughout the conference. Google’s Vice President & General Manager for Assistant and Bard, Sissie Hsiao, stated in a blog post that they are approaching Bard as an experiment rather than a beta. She also added that Google is working on making Bard more visual, allowing for multimodal content that includes pictures, maps, charts, and other visual aids.

In February, Google announced the launch of Bard, and it made its first public appearance in March when it was made available via a waitlist. Like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Bard is a conversational AI chatbot that responds to queries in natural language.

Introducing Multiple Languages, Dark Mode and Much More!

Google has announced several new features for Bard, which include support for additional languages such as Japanese and Korean, visual search, a dark mode, and more straightforward ways to export text to Google Docs and Gmail.

The updated version of Bard is especially useful for coding queries, enabling debugging and explanations for code blocks in over 20 languages.

Some improvements to Bard include enhanced citations for code, and a new export button that allows users to send code to Google’s Colab platform and the browser-based IDE, Replit, for Python queries.

Now Generate Visuals Using Bard Ai

Google is enhancing Bard’s visual capabilities for broader usage by enabling it to analyze and display images in query results and generate visuals using AI technology from Adobe’s Firefly software.

The visual outcomes will be presented in Bard similarly to how they are shown in Google searches. For instance, if you inquire with Bard about “must-see sights in New Orleans,” it will generate a list of pertinent places and images you would typically see in a Google image search.

A Unique Fusion of Google Lens and Bard’s Intelligence

Another interesting function of the new and improved Bard is the ability to prompt the system with an image. This is powered by Google Lens, which can identify objects within pictures. So, for instance, you can submit a photo of your dogs with the prompt “Write a funny caption about these two,” Google Lens detects the breeds of the dogs, and Bard will deliver a statement relevant to their characteristics.

According to Google, Bard will soon be incorporating Adobe’s AI image generator, Firefly, which is noteworthy due to its “ethical” training data. This integration is the first of many third-party tools Bard will be integrating with, as Google assures that the system will soon connect directly to various apps and services across the web.

Wrapping Up!

In summary, Bard’s new features and broader availability have generated a lot of excitement in the tech industry. However, although these new features jointly represent a significant upgrade for Bard, there is still the question of what the chatbot is actually for.

Although Google stresses that the bot isn’t a replacement for human interaction, it’s worth considering the implications of a chatbot that can generate responses using natural language and visual aids. Nevertheless, the chatbot’s purpose remains unclear, Google’s efforts to make it more valuable and accessible could revolutionize the way people interact with AI in the future. So, what do you think about Bard? Will you be trying it out anytime soon?