What is Bard (Google AI)? Everything you need to know

Artificial intelligence has gained a lot of popularity in such a small time. One of the biggest reasons is OpenAI's ChatGPT, an AI power chatbot that can assist you with any query. Since artificial intelligence holds a lot of potentials, every tech giant is looking forward to releasing its AI tools in the market. Google is also one of them, and in this article, you will learn what is Bard (Google AI) Chatbot.

Google already provides many AI-based tools and services like the Assistant, Lens, and others. However, Bard is a little different since it is a chatbot; it provides a conversational experience similar to ChatGPT's. So, let’s look at everything you need to know about Bard from Google.

What is Bard (Google AI)?

Bard from Google is a chatbot tool that comes with artificial intelligence capabilities. With its artificial intelligence capabilities, it simulates human conversation, and for these conversations, it uses Natural language processing to generate answers while machine learning helps it to gather the information.

Bard makes a great ChatGPT alternative since it can be integrated with Google search, websites, applications, and some messaging platforms as well. Such integrations always provide realistic responses with a natural human language touch to the conversation.

How does it work?

The backend of Bard is based on the PaLM2 language model. It is also known as Pathways language model 2 released in 2022. Along with PaLM2, Bard also uses LaMDA technology, which was released in 2017 by Google. These technologies are used in many other tools based on AI, like the GPT-3 model from ChatGPT.

Since the backend is similar, Bard takes your queries and provides the most natural and helpful answer according to the queries with its natural language processing capabilities. Moreover, Bard does not take keywords only but allows you to type in complete queries to get the best and most natural-sounding answer.

It is possible because the artificial intelligence of Bard's backend is trained with millions of natural-sounding questions, queries, and their responses. Something that makes Bard even better is that it follows up with the questions. It learns the types of questions you have been asking and provides related answers to any next questions.

Lastly, it is a lighter AI chatbot tool that requires little computing power for queries from millions of users with the help of LaMDA. At the same time, the PaLM model makes it better regarding the visuals in the responses generated.

Release of Bard.

Google Announced Bard on 6 February 2023 after the success of ChatGPT. However, Bard was initially released on 21 March 2023 when Google started opening its access by inviting users. The initial release used a waiting list where users could wait for their turns. However, this waiting list was completely removed on 10 Mat 2023, when it became available to every user in more than 180 countries.

Who can access it, and what languages does it work in?

Any Google account holder who is over 18 years of age can use Bard now. It is available in more than 180 countries, and its access is said to expand worldwide. In terms of languages, it currently supports English as a basic language. Korean and Japanese are also supported, and according to Google, Bard will soon support more than 40 languages with coming updates.

How to use it?

You first need to go to the Bard website. There it will require you to log in or signup if you haven't already. For initial usage, you must agree with the terms & conditions for using Bard. Lastly, you need to opt for emails from it or not. With all of these done, you will come to the page where you can type your queries, and it will generate the answer to any query.

For example, you can ask it to “list 10 benefits of sleeping and waking early” or email the boss asking for 3 days leave. As you proceed with your question, Bard will instantly generate the most appropriate response to your questions.

It was just the basic usage guide, and you have many other useful options like viewing the additional answers to every question by clocking the draft button, regenerating answers if you didn’t like the previous one, etc. As you keep on asking questions from Bard, it will keep giving answers, and the previous ones will move up the scroll.

Top features of Google Bard

Google Bard holds a lot of potential thanks to its AI capabilities. With such powerful capabilities, it brings a lot of features for an average user, and here are the top 7 features of Google Bard that you need to know:

1. Image reading

Google Bard is keeping up with the industry requirements and trends and now brings image-reading capabilities. The feature is present in the latest GPT-4 model from OpenAI. However, now Google Bard can also read images thanks to the integration of Google Lence in this conversational text tool. Since it reads your images, it can also respond with the most appropriate responses.

That way, you can be very efficient in writing captions about an image, product descriptions, etc.

2. Image generation

Another new feature that Google has introduced in Bard is image generation. However, it is already available in other AI tools from multiple platforms. Bard brings these capabilities into one tool. So, with a standardized usage experience, you can be efficient with generating images. Now you can do everything from text to image generation without switching apps or tabs.

The best part is that it is based on the Adobe Firefly model that generates high-quality images according to your demands.

3. It adds visual information with answers.

Sometimes you cannot only interpret the idea behind an answer with the text. That’s where the visual information feature from Bard can be very helpful. Microsoft initially announced this feature after the deal with OpenAI.

Now you get the same experience from Bard since you can ask questions, and it will provide text answers along with visuals for a better understanding. This feature is not currently live for every user, but once it becomes available, it will change users' research and content generation experience.

4. Integrates Google Services

AI tools from different platforms focus on integrating their other services within the text chatbot. However, Google Bard provides the best experience in this case since Google has one of the biggest portfolios of services. For example, Google can let you integrate Bard with maps, docs, sheets, etc.

This way, finding the right information or giving a practical presentation with the right data will become very easy. For example, if you are looking to find a location, you can ask Bard about it; if you have integrated Maps with Bard, the results will be even better since you will get a text explanation and data from Maps.

5. Plugin

What is Bard (Google AI), and what are its features? One of the best features here is Plugins. Since Google service integration is already a highly beneficial feature, things get even better since you can use extensions from other websites and companies in the form of Plugins to integrate Bard.

Google is said to partner with platforms and services like Spotify, Khan Academy, Kayak, ZipRecruiter, OpenTable, Instacart, etc. In this way, Google will provide selective experiences for Bard users, and using those platforms will also become better.

6. Draft saving

One of the biggest issues with ChatGPT is that all the responses you generated with it will be removed as the tab refreshes. If that happens, you won't get the same answer even if you ask the same question, which can be problematic. With Google Bard, you don’t need to worry about that since it provides multiple answers for a query, and all of them can be saved as a draft.

When you have something in the draft section, you don’t need to worry about any special steps about opting for the best answer or finding other answers that vanish automatically.

7. One-click chat export

Another great feature that makes Bard different from other tools and AI chatbots is the answer exporting option. Say that you generated a response with Bard and want to save it for future usage purposes; you can press the upload/export button at the bottom of that response.

You can send it to Google Docs or Gmail, where it will stay safe for future usage. Once you are done, you can delete it.

What are the applications and limitations of Bard?

Bard does come with a lot of applications in different fields of life. However, at the same time, there are several limitations. So, knowing both is essential before you start with it since your experience won't be the same otherwise. Here are our findings about what is Bard (Google AI), its applications, and its limitations.

Applications

Now that you know what is Bard (Google AI), here are the top 7 applications of Bard include:

1. Education

Students mostly ask what is Bard (Google is, AI), and one of the best applications of Bard in real-life tasks is in the education sector. If a student finds something difficult, it can ask Bard to explain, and Bard will explain with the best information and examples.

2. Programming and development

The next best usage of Bard is in programming and development. Bard can not only provide you with pieces of code in your desired programming language, but you can also ask it to explain something in a code you can't understand. With Bard, you can also learn to implement a piece of code in your overall application code.

3. Writing

Bard is one of the best tools when it comes to writing requirements. You can do everything from email writing to web content generation and SEO with Bard. However, it is recommended to use it for gathering the information only for better results. In the case of an email, you can use it to write the whole thing for you.

4. Research

When you search for something on Google Search, you get a lot of answers that you must read and find the thing you are looking for. That’s not the case with Bard since it provides the best answer by combining multiple sources. Hence, research becomes very quick for you.

5. Customer service

If you provide customer service, sometimes understanding customer queries and providing appropriate answers can be difficult. With Bard, you can understand the questions and quickly generate the right answer for that customer. Hence, your customer service experience will enhance.

6. Entertainment

Although it may not be the most common application, Bard can still be a good choice for entertaining people. For example, you can use it to write jokes for you, plan comedy skits, or write whole YouTube comedy video scripts.

7. Creativity

The last and most common application of Bard will be very helpful in being creative. Sometimes you know the main goal, but you are unaware of how to accomplish it with creativity. Bard can help you by generating the right ideas with its creativity that can help you write stories, create new art, compose some music, or anything else that requires creativity.

Limitations

Now that you know what is Bard (Google AI), here are the top 4 limitations of Bard include:

1. Bias

One of the biggest limitations here is that the answers can be biased. After all, it is trained with datasets that contain data in the form of text and code. So, when you ask something, the responses will be generated according to that data, and that’s why sometimes it may feel biased.

2. Accuracy

Although it is backed by artificial intelligence, you cannot expect it to be accurate every time. It is because the results will be gained from real-time search and data present in the datasets. So, the accuracy depends on them. Even if it quickly generates responses, you must double-check the information wherever a fact is involved.

3. Security

It is an extremely powerful tool that makes you feel like chatting with a human. With the huge datasets and ML models at the backend, it can be used for bad purposes. So, when using it, be careful with your personal information and take care of your security.

4. Human creativity

Bard is great in terms of creativity and human conversational tone. However, it may not always be as creative as a human mind. It may generate repetitive content sometimes, which will not be very efficient for your use case.

Pros and Cons of Bard

With many technical features, it brings several pros for the average user. However, along with the positives, there are also some negatives of using Bard. So, here are the top pros and cons of Bard that you need to know:

Pros

·   It is a powerful AI tool that does not require a powerful hardware backend from the end user. Hence, it can easily deal with various tasks like generating text, translating, or copywriting.

·   The answers you get from Bard are informative and come with a human conversational tone. The tool is trained to answer different types of questions in different tones. That’s how it generates creative, original text every time.

·   The information provided by Bard is reliable because it is taken from Google Search, and Bard is always connected to live internet, so the data is kept up to date.

·   It is still under development and learns consistently. So, it will provide answers according to your queries and learn the questioning pattern. Moreover, it learns from your feedback.

Cons

·   Since it is still under development, many current missing features and imitations can ruin your experience. However, these limitations may be resolved with future updates.

·   You can't blindly trust Google Bard's information since it is an AI tool. If you include any facts in your content, double-check them with your manual research for better reliability.

·   Due to its high power, this tool can be used for negative purposes like malicious tasks. So, being aware of the potential risks and taking responsibility for your security is important.

What was the driving force behind the release of Bard?

How does it compete against other AI Chatbots available today?

Currently, there are multiple options when you search for an AI chatbot with modern-day conversational capabilities. In fact, the competition between features and user experience is relatively touchy when we compare different tools with the same capabilities. Here is the comparison of Google Bard with some of its alternatives.

1. ChatGPT

When we compare ChatGPT and Bard from Google, we will see that both are based on machine learning and natural language processing models. Both AI chatbots are based on the large language model that enables them to generate that creative text. Additionally, there are several similarities between these tools like:

·   Generating original content

·   Conversational tone with creativity

·   Provide answers based on the latest information.

Regarding user experience, the answers are slightly different, with Bard giving more information. However, it is only supported by the Google search engine, while ChatGPT may make its way into multiple search engines.

2. Microsoft Bing

Microsoft Bing is one of the biggest alternatives to Google Bard since it has finalized the partnership deal with OpenAI. The experience is the same for an average user, and so will the answers. Remember that Bing is powered by GPT-4 model, which increases its ability to interact with your queries much better.

3. ChatSonic

ChatSonic is powered by Google Search, an AI chatbot that provides AI-generated text. Hence, the capabilities are much more limited here than Google Bard. Even though it can provide visual results and assistance, you have to pay for it, while the text version of ChatSonic is free. So, you need to pay a monthly fee to use it.

4. Jasper

Jasper is long known for being one of the best AI content writing tools, but currently, the Jasper Chat AI chatbot is focused on providing you the same capabilities as Google Bard and ChatGPT. However, instead of regular conversation, it focuses more on copywriting goals, which makes it specifically for users targeted towards email writing, SEO, web pages, etc.

Meanwhile, Google Bard provides a complete experience with multiple services and features.

5. YouChat

An AI chatbot made by the You search engine is good if you want to get ahead at research. The best part is that it provides citations and sources with all its answers. So, if you are working with anything that includes facts, you can check the authenticity by yourself.

Hence, you will be sure about the facts that you add and YouChat makes research easier for you. You will not get that from Bard currently, but Google may add this feature later.

6. NeevaAI

NeevaAI is another chatbot that comes from Germany. It is based on the Neeva search engine company and provides a similar experience to YouChat. It is because it brings citations and sources providing capabilities. Moreover, it can summarize different sources to create one answer that meets your question’s requirements.

Final Remarks

Google has been the pioneer choice for many tools and services. While it already has several AI tools, the recently developed Bard from Google AI is set to change things forever. While it is designed as a conversational Chatbot, it has many more capabilities than just that. For instance, it can translate for you, generate text answers, and give creative answers with a human conversational touch.

Above all these factors, it is still an under-development tool, which means there is much more to come. While the fame went with ChatGPT at the beginning of the AI chatbot era, we can say that Bard by Google AI can revolutionize the world of AI chatbots with its features and the ones that are yet to come.