Google makes Bard-AI chatbot available, initially only in US and UK

Google has made the Bard-AI chatbot available to regular users for the first time. For the time being, this only concerns the United States and the United Kingdom, and there is a waiting list. Ultimately, the service should also become available in other countries.

The company calls Bard another “early experiment” and says this move should provide additional feedback that Google can use to improve Bard. The generative AI chatbot should be able to improve users’ productivity and provide them with additional creativity. Google says Bard can, among other things, explain quantum physics “in simple terms,” ​​or help users read more books or create a blog post.

Google Bard still makes mistakes sometimes.

In announcing that Bard is being made available to the first users, the company also notes that Bard can convey misinformation with conviction. For example, a user asked Bard for plant tips, after which the company gave the zz plant the wrong scientific name. When starting a conversation, it is indicated that the chatbot may contain errors and offensive information.

For example, when users ask Bard to draft a text, Bard can provide multiple draft ideas for the user to choose from. This gives the user more input into what type of text Bard writes. Bard is also linked to Google Search, so Bard’s responses can be checked more quickly. Google says it wants to integrate large language models such as Bard’s LaMDA model into Search, which it plans to provide more information about later.

Google also wants to expand Bard with other functions later, such as coding and multimodal functions. Multimodal generative AI functions are functions that convert text input into, for example, an image, or vice versa. It is not clear when Bard will become available in the Benelux. Google announced Bard in early February as a competitor to ChatGPT.