Google has officially released Bard, its experimental chatbot powered by large language models and generative AI. Bard is Google’s answer to ChatGPT, the popular chatbot from OpenAI that has been making waves in the AI community. But how does Bard compare to ChatGPT, and what can it do for users?
Bard is an online service that allows users to chat with an AI agent that can generate responses based on information from the web. Users can ask Bard anything, from factual questions to creative prompts, and get fresh, high-quality answers. Bard can also help users explore their curiosity, learn new things, and spark their imagination.
Bard is built on Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), a large neural network that can handle open-ended conversations on any topic. LaMDA was first unveiled by Google in 2021 as a breakthrough in natural language understanding and generation. LaMDA can produce coherent and relevant responses that are grounded in real-world knowledge and context.
Unlike ChatGPT, which types out answers word by word, Bard produces blocks of text in an instant. Bard also offers users three different versions or “drafts” of any given answer, which they can toggle between to see different perspectives or styles. Additionally, Bard has a “Google it” button that lets users access web results for their queries if they want more information.
Bard is currently available for users in the U.S. and U.K., with more countries to be added later. Users can join a waitlist for English-language access to Bard at bard.google.com. Google describes Bard as an experiment that is still a work in progress and may not always function as intended. Users are encouraged to provide feedback to help Google improve Bard’s quality and safety.
Google hopes that Bard will be a companion to its primary service, search, and will enable new ways of interacting with information and AI. Google also sees Bard as a way of advancing its research on large language models and generative AI, which have enormous potential for various applications across domains.
Bard is part of Google’s broader vision of making AI more accessible and useful for everyone. As Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, wrote in a blog post announcing Bard: “AI helps people unlock their potential…and opens up new opportunities that could significantly improve billions of lives.”
