Google has expanded the availability of its chatbot, Bard, to over 180 countries and eliminated the need for a waitlist to access the service. Additionally, Google has introduced several new features to Bard, aiming to establish a stronger presence in the AI chatbot market, which is currently dominated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
During its developer conference, Google unveiled a range of enhancements and additions to its chatbot, Bard. These updates include the introduction of PaLLM 2, an advanced language model, improved visual interactions, support for images, integration with Google Lens, and more. Notably, Google announced that Bard is now accessible in more than 180 countries. However, it is important to note that Bard is currently in the experimental phase, and users are required to join a waitlist before they can use it.
If you are interested in trying out Google’s new Bard AI tool, here’s what you need to do and keep in mind:
Also read: Google unveils ChatGPT rival “Bard”
What is Bard?
Bard is an AI chatbot developed by Google, leveraging the power of their Large Language Model (LLM) called LaMDA. It operates on a neural network architecture that emulates the structure of the human brain within a computer system. Similarly, ChatGPT is also built upon the GPT architecture, another type of neural network.
It’s important to note that Bard is distinct from Google Search, which serves as the primary means through which billions of users access information on the web. While traditional search engines operate by retrieving relevant web pages based on specific queries, Bard takes a conversational approach. Users can input prompts or questions, and the AI generates human-like text and images in response, using its artificial intelligence capabilities. By employing this conversational approach, Bard aims to provide users with a more interactive and natural experience when seeking information or engaging in discussions. Instead of static search results, Bard offers dynamic and personalized conversational responses.
According to its description, Bard is referred to as a “large language model” or a conversational AI/chatbot that has been trained extensively to provide comprehensive and informative responses. With access to an immense volume of text data, Bard is capable of engaging in communication and generating human-like text in response to a wide variety of prompts and questions. For instance, it can offer factual topic summaries or even create narratives and stories. The aim of Bard is to deliver an advanced conversational experience that emulates human-like interactions.
Is Bard free?
Initially, Bard by Google was accessible to users in the US and the UK who joined a waitlist, but now it has expanded its availability to individuals in 180 countries. As of now, Bard is offered for free, and Google is actively encouraging users to utilize the chatbot and provide feedback to enhance its performance.
Also read: HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH CHATGPT: 2023 Edition
Who can use Bard?
Anybody can use Bard who :
- Belongs to one of the 180 regions where bard is available.
- An active Google account
- Internet connection
- A web browser compatible with Bard
How to use Bard in India for free?
1) Go to Bard’s official website at https://bard.google.com
2) Click on the ‘Try me’ option at the bottom right corner of the page
3) Agree to Google Bard’s privacy policy by clicking on ‘I agree’ at the bottom of the page
4) You can now use Google Bard for free without going through a waitlist
5) Enter your question or prompt in the text box at the bottom.
6) Click on the Submit button.
7) Customize your prompt to provide specific details about the content you want Bard to generate.
8) Be as specific and detailed as possible in your prompt to ensure better-quality responses.
9) For example, if your theme is nature, you can prompt with “Describe a beautiful sunset over the ocean.”
10) Bard will generate a response based on your prompt.
11) The generated content will be displayed on the screen.
12) Click on the “Generate” button to get more content if needed.
13) Edit and refine the content to add a personal touch or make it more specific.
14) Rearrange lines, change words, or add your own lines to improve the content’s meaning.
15) View other drafts for each response by clicking “View other drafts.”
16) Provide feedback by giving a thumbs up or down.
17) Refresh the page for a new answer, select it, copy it to your clipboard, or report it.
18) Save your work to your Google account, share it with friends or on social media.
19) You can revisit your work later to make further changes or improvements.
Advantages of Bard
1. PaLM Model Integration
Bard’s advantage lies in its integration of the PaLM (Pathways Language Model) architecture. With 540 billion parameters, PaLM is a transformer-based language model trained on diverse data sources such as webpages, Wikipedia, books, news articles, source codes, and social media conversations. This comprehensive training equips Bard with generative and problem-solving capabilities similar to ChatGPT and Bing Chat, enabling it to provide contextually relevant and informative responses.
2. Real-Time Internet Access
Google Bard has the advantage of providing real-time internet access while generating responses. In addition to being trained on extensive datasets, Bard leverages the power of Google Search to fetch up-to-date information from the web. This feature proves valuable for research purposes and gathering the most recent information on various topics. In contrast, ChatGPT relies solely on its pre-defined datasets and lacks the ability to access real-time internet information.
3. Human-Like Conversations
One significant advantage of Bard is its ability to engage in human-like conversations. Whether prompted through text or speech, Bard can understand natural language inputs and provide conversational responses. This feature allows users to ask questions, give instructions, and receive interactive and contextually relevant answers. With its natural language processing capabilities and large language model foundation, Bard’s conversational abilities are comparable to other advanced chatbot systems like ChatGPT and Bing Chat. This makes Bard akin to virtual assistants such as Google Assistant and Siri, but with an emphasis on in-depth conversations.
4. Voice Command Support
Google Bard offers the advantage of accepting voice commands. Users can utilize the microphone option located in the input bar, similar to Google Search, to provide prompts using their voice. This feature enhances the convenience and accessibility of interacting with Bard, allowing users to engage in conversations and receive responses without the need for manual text input.
5. Specific Generative Capabilities
Bard exhibits specific generative capabilities that make it a versatile chatbot:
- Text Generation: Bard excels in generating texts in various styles and formats, such as news articles, blog posts, letters, and email messages. Its ability to produce creative writing adds to its versatility.
- Language Translation: With near-human accuracy, Bard can perform language translations. It enables users to obtain translations between different languages effectively.
- Question-and-Answer Platform: Bard can function as a question-and-answer platform, providing informative and comprehensive responses to a wide range of inquiries.
- Reasoning and Creative Thinking: Users can leverage Bard’s capabilities for assistance with reasoning and creative thinking processes. It can contribute to problem-solving or ideation tasks.
- Code Generation and Debugging: Bard possesses the ability to generate and debug codes in various programming languages. This feature can be particularly useful for developers seeking assistance with their coding endeavors.
6. Seamless Export to Documents and Email Drafts
One notable advantage of Bard is its seamless integration with productivity tools. After generating the content, whether it’s an email, document, or any other text-based output, users can directly export it to various platforms. Bard offers options such as “Export to Docs” and “Draft in Mail” that allow users to save their generated content as a document or draft it within an email, respectively. This feature streamlines the workflow and enables users to quickly utilize the content in their preferred format, enhancing productivity and ease of use.
Disadvantage of Bard
1. Bard’s Beta Phase Limitations
One of the limitations of Bard is that it is currently in the beta phase and considered experimental. As a result, it is not perfect and may occasionally provide irrelevant answers or responses that are not completely accurate.
2. Limited Creativity Scope
Compared to ChatGPT, Bard may have a more limited scope in terms of creativity. While Bard excels in generating technical and factual content, its creative abilities might be comparatively restricted. This means that Bard may not be as proficient in producing imaginative and artistic outputs such as fictional stories or poetic compositions. Users seeking highly creative or expressive content may find ChatGPT more suitable for their needs.
Difference between Bard and ChatGpt
| Aspect | Bard | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time internet access | Shows up-to-date results using Google Search | Relies solely on pre-defined datasets |
| Voice command support | Can process voice commands | Lacks direct voice command support |
| Exporting responses | Allows exporting responses to Gmail or Docs | No built-in feature for exporting responses |
| Webpage summarization | Can provide brief summaries of webpages | Lacks the ability to summarize specific webpages |
| Multimodal capabilities | Supports text and image generation | Primarily focused on text generation |
| Release Status | Available in more than 180 countries for user feedback | Widely accessible and used by a large user base |
| Developer involvement | Developed and maintained by Google | Developed and maintained by OpenAI |
| Source of information | Release Status | Primarily relies on pre-defined datasets and internal knowledge |
| Language understanding | Strives for human-like conversations | Focuses on generating text responses based on given prompts |
| Timeliness of information | Can provide live and up-to-date information | Based on pre-existing knowledge up until September 2021 |
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Some tips for using Google Bard
- Be specific: Provide detailed and specific questions or prompts to Google Bard. The more specific you are, the better the chatbot will be able to understand and generate relevant responses.
- Use natural language: Google Bard is trained on a vast dataset of text, so using natural language when interacting with it will help facilitate better understanding and more accurate responses.
- Exercise patience: As Google Bard is still in development, it may not always provide perfect or complete answers. Be patient and understanding, allowing room for improvements and updates to enhance its performance over time.
AI technology is rapidly advancing, offering various options to make work easier, faster, and more accurate. Both ChatGPT and Google Bard have their unique advantages and capabilities. ChatGPT excels in its extensive generative capabilities and ability to provide detailed information based on pre-existing knowledge. On the other hand, Bard offers real-time internet access, accepts voice commands, and provides options to export generated content.
Which AI chatbot would you prefer? Share your thoughts and preferences in the comment section below. We would love to hear your opinions
