“Last December, we brought Gemini Pro into Bard in English, giving Bard more advanced understanding, reasoning, summarizing and coding abilities. Today Gemini Pro in Bard will be available in over 40 languages and more than 230 countries and territories, so more people can collaborate with this faster, more capable version of Bard.”
I’m guessing that for most people, without the preceding context, the above explanation would have been somewhat bewildering, but basically, Google’s now making its Bard chatbot more powerful, with advanced AI models powering its responses, while it’s also adding image generation capability within Bard itself, powered by Imagen.
Google has taken a cautious approach with generative AI development, and has criticized others for pushing too hard, too fast, with their generative AI tools. Some have viewed this as anti-competitive bias, and Google simply protecting its turf, as more people turn to tools like ChatGPT for search queries. But Google’s view is that generative AI needs to be deployed slowly in order to mitigate misuse, which has already led to various issues in a regulatory sense.
But today, Google‘s taking the next steps with several of its generative AI tools, with Bard, as noted, getting improved system thinking and image creation, Google Maps now getting new conversational queries, powered by AI, to facilitate place discovery, and Imagen 2, the next stage of its visual creation system, also being rolled out within its image-generation tools.
“Imagen 2 has been trained on higher-quality, image-description pairings and generates more detailed images that are better aligned with the semantics of people’s language prompts. It’s more accurate than our previous system at processing details, and it’s more capable at capturing nuance – delivering more photorealistic images across a range of styles and use cases.”
That’ll provide more opportunity to create better visuals within Google’s systems, which will also be created with various safeguards in place, in order to limit “problematic outputs like violent, offensive, or sexually explicit content”.
“All images generated with Imagen 2 in our consumer products will be marked by SynthID, a tool developed by Google DeepMind, that adds a digital watermark directly into the pixels of images we generate. SynthID watermarks are imperceptible to the human eye but detectable for identification.”
Given the recent controversy surrounding AI generated images of Taylor Swift, this is an important measure, and is one of several concerns that Google has repeatedly raised in the rapid rollout of AI tools, that we don’t yet have all the systems and processes in place to fully protect against this kind of misuse.
In this sense, Google’s AI generations could be safer, and more reliable in this respect, though OpenAI’s tools have clearly taken top billing as the AI tools of choice, at least within this initial push.
Still, Google is evolving its own offerings, and they could soon become even more valuable, depending on how its systems continue to develop. There are now a wide range of options for generative AI search and creation, but eventually, the market will refine, and the best performing tools will arise, taking the bigger market share.
Google’s hoping that its more cautious, measured approach will win out in the long run, while it also has more resources and capacity than most of its rivals.
And if Google can win out, it can also protect its core Search business, by ensuring that conversational AI doesn’t completely eat away its market. At least not quickly, which adds extra motivation for Google to maximize its AI tools over time.
Either way, some interesting tools to experiment with, which could fit better into your usage process.
Google says that Gemini Pro is now available in Bard, while Imagen 2 is now available across Bard, ImageFX, SGE, and Vertex AI. Google’s generative AI guides in Maps will begin testing with U.S. users from this week.
This guide is designed to show you how to master the basics of Google Bard.
Bard is a large language model (LLM) chatbot developed by Google AI, trained on a massive dataset of text and code. It can generate text, translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, and answer your questions in an informative way.
Bard is still under development, but it has learned to perform many kinds of tasks, including:
Following instructions and completing requests thoughtfully.
Using its knowledge to answer questions in a comprehensive and informative way, even if they are open-ended, challenging, or strange.
Generating different creative text formats of text content, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, email, letters, etc. It will try its best to fulfil all your requirements.
To master the basics of Google Bard, you need to understand its capabilities and limitations, and how to use it effectively. Here are some tips:
Understand what Bard can and cannot do
Bard is a powerful tool, but it is not perfect. It can sometimes generate inaccurate or misleading information, especially when asked about complex or controversial topics. It is important to be critical of Bard’s responses and to verify them with other sources.
Bard is also not a replacement for human creativity. It can generate new text formats, but it cannot come up with original ideas. It is important to provide Bard with clear and concise instructions on what you want it to do.
Use natural language prompts
Bard is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, so it can understand natural language prompts. When asking Bard a question or giving it a task, try to use the same kind of language that you would use when talking to a human.
For example, instead of saying “Write a poem about a cat,” try saying “Can you please write a poem about a cat?” This will help Bard to understand what you want and to generate a response that is relevant and informative.
Be specific in your instructions
When giving Bard a task, be as specific as possible. This will help Bard to generate a response that meets your expectations.
For example, instead of saying “Write a blog post about artificial intelligence,” try saying “Can you please write a 1000-word blog post about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence?” This will give Bard a better understanding of what you want and help it to generate a more comprehensive and informative response.
Use follow-up questions
If you are not satisfied with Bard’s response, you can ask it follow-up questions to clarify or refine its response. For example, if you ask Bard to write a poem about a cat and it generates a poem that is too short or too simple, you can ask it to write a longer or more complex poem.
Provide feedback
If you’d like to share your thoughts on the quality or relevance of Bard’s responses, you have the option to do so by utilizing the thumbs-up or thumbs-down buttons located near each answer. By offering this feedback, you’re contributing valuable data that enables Bard to continually refine its algorithms, thereby enhancing its performance and making it more effective in delivering accurate and helpful information over time
Experiment and have fun
Bard is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things. Bard is still under development, so the more you use it, the better it will become at understanding and fulfilling your needs.
Here are some additional tips for mastering the basics of Google Bard:
Use Bard to learn new things. You can ask Bard questions about any topic, and it will try to provide you with a comprehensive and informative answer.
Use Bard to generate creative content. Bard can write poems, stories, code, scripts, musical pieces, and more. Just give it a clear and concise prompt, and it will do its best to fulfil your request.
Use Bard to help you with your work. Bard can help you to write reports, create presentations, generate marketing copy, and more. Just give it a clear and concise task, and it will do its best to help you.
Here are some examples of how you can use Bard:
Ask Bard to write a summary of a news article or research paper.
Ask Bard to generate a list of ideas for a new blog post or marketing campaign.
Ask Bard to translate a text from one language to another.
Ask Bard to write a poem or story in a specific style.
Ask Bard to write a report or presentation on a specific topic.
Summary
Google Bard is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. By following the tips in this article, you can learn how to master the basics of Bard and use it to improve your work, By following the tips in this article, you can learn how to master the basics of Bard and use it to be more productive and creative. We hope that you find this guide helpful and informative, if you have any comments, tips or questions, please leave a comment below and let us know.
Everything you need to know to get started with Bard, Google’s experimental conversational AI chatbot.
Bard is Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot which generates responses to user-provided natural language prompts. In response to a prompt, Bard can pull information from the internet and present a response. The large language model behind Bard delivers the response in natural language — in contrast to a standard Google search, where a result consists of a snippet of information or a list of links.
Google announced Bard in February 2023 after OpenAI and Microsoft both garnered attention for AI chatbot systems. And in May 2023, Bard and related AI advancements featured prominently in Google’s I/O event.
According to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, Bard is “an experimental conversational AI service.”
In fact, Google places the word “Experiment” next to the system’s name to show it is still a work in progress. Additionally, Google indicates that “Bard may display inaccurate or offensive information that doesn’t represent Google’s views” in a disclaimer placed below the prompt box.
Bard’s prompt-response process can help you obtain answers faster than a standard Google search sequence.
A classic Google search requires you to enter keywords, follow links, review content, then compile the results or repeat the process with a refined keyword search string.
You also can suggest a specific length if you want a particular degree of brevity, such as “Please summarize in 100 words.”
Google Bard can compare
Bard can compare two or more items. In many cases, when you ask Bard to compare things, the system will display some of the data in a table. For example, if you prompt Bard:
Compare a Pixel 7, Pixel 7a and Samsung Galaxy S23.
Similarly, you may ask Bard to compare web pages.
Google Bard can suggest
Bard may serve as a suggestion engine for products, services or activities. Enter the title of books, music or movies you like, then ask Bard to suggest others. This can be useful when you’re researching unfamiliar topics. For example, you might try:
I am interested in learning the history of machine learning.
Can you recommend 10 useful and highly respected books on the topic?
Google Bard can explain
When you want to learn about a topic or historical event, you can ask Bard to explain it to you. If you like, you may suggest a desired level in order to guide the system toward an explanation that may be either easier to understand or more detailed. For a general overview of a core technology that helps make Bard work, you might ask:
Can you explain the basics of how neural networks operate? Explain it to me as if I am in my first year of college.
Google Bard can brainstorm
One of the best uses of a chatbot is to gather a long list of ideas. Ask Bard to “Brainstorm ideas for…” followed by whatever topic you wish, such as a new project, promotional effort or paper. Encourage Bard to provide creative, unusual or inventive ideas for additional variety in the responses.
Google Bard can code and debug
In April 2023, Bard added the ability to create and help debug code in more than 20 programming languages. When you ask for code, make sure to specify the programming language and describe in as much detail as possible the code you need. If the code generated doesn’t work, let Bard know what exactly went awry, and ask for a suggested fix or for help interpreting an error code.
Bard can help you write, too. As with most prompts, provide as much detail about the topic, length, format (blog post, poem, essay, book report, etc.) and style as possible. If you have a rough outline of a blog post, you might include the desired points in your prompt. For this section of text, for example, you might prompt:
Using the following points as an outline, can you draft
examples and explanatory text? "Bard can summarize. Bard can compare.
Bard can suggest. Bard can explain. Bard can brainstorm. Bard can draft
text. Bard can code (and debug). Bard can search."
The responses Bard generated were reasonable and might have required only a little editing and correction to be usable.
Google makes it easy to move Bard text elsewhere. Select the response export button to move content to either a new Google Doc or Gmail. Alternatively, select the More button (the three vertical dots), then choose Copy to place the response text on the system clipboard for pasting into any app of your choice.
Bard can search
Since Bard can access internet content, many conventional keyword searches will also work in Bard. Ask about current news topics, weather forecasts or pretty much any standard keyword search string. However, Bard will provide responses mostly in conventional text, sometimes supplemented with images, whereas Google search may show content in custom formats (e.g., weather forecasts often display a chart). When you seek a set of links, switch out of Bard back to a standard Google search.
Bard can be wrong
Bard can get things wrong. Never rely solely on content provided in Bard responses without verification. When Bard does provide an inaccurate, misleading or inappropriate response, select the thumbs down icon to convey to the system that it provided a bad response. Remember, Bard is an experiment.
When was Google Bard released?
At launch in March 2023, Google limited Bard access via a waitlist to people with personal Google accounts. In early May 2023, Google eliminated the waitlist and made Bard more widely available.
How can you get access to Google Bard?
To access Bard, go to https://bard.google.com in a web browser, and sign in with a Google account (Figure A).
Figure A
Go to bard.google.com in any modern browser, then sign in with a Google account.
If your account is managed by a Google Workspace administrator, such as an account for work or school, the administrator may adjust settings to either allow or prevent access to Bard. Check with your administrator, should you have any questions.
If you are a Google Workspace administrator and wish to review or adjust the settings that affect Bard availability for people in your organization, access the Admin console | Apps | Additional Google services | Early Access Apps, then modify the Service status and Core Data Access Permissions as desired.
What countries and languages is Google Bard available in?
As of May 10, 2023, Google expanded Bard to support Japanese and Korean in addition to U.S. English. Simultaneously, Google made Bard available in more than 180 countries and territories. However, Bard was not made available on that date to people in European Union countries, such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain. By the end of 2023, Google intends to make Bard available in the 40 most spoken languages.
Can I manage my Bard activity history?
Yes, Google gives you control over your Bard activity history, much as it does your search and browsing history. To adjust the settings, select Bard Activity from the left menu. Then, you may choose whether Bard Activity history is on or off (Figure B).
Figure B
While access to previous prompts can be helpful, Google gives you full control over whether or not your Bard Activity history is stored.
If on, you may choose to Auto-delete activity after three, 18 or 36 months or not at all. Additionally, you may access your Bard activity history, which can be helpful if you wish to review or rerun a previous prompt.
Is Google Bard free to use?
Yes, Google Bard is available to use for free. As of May 2023, Google Bard remains free of advertising, as well.
Is Google Bard using PaLM 2?
In May 2023 Google announced that Bard had switched to using Pathways Language Model 2 rather than Language Model for Dialogue Applications. Google promotes PaLM 2 as a “state-of-the-art language model with improved multilingual, reasoning and coding capabilities.”
Google plans to make PaLM 2 available in four distinct sizes: Gecko, Otto, Bison and Unicorn. The distinct sizes are intended to serve a wide range of computing environments. The smallest, Gecko, is intended to be functional even on a mobile device without an internet connection.
What are alternatives to Google Bard?
The ability to access current internet content is a key differentiator between Google Bard and many other chatbot AI systems. Many large language model chatbot systems were trained on older data and lack access to information about current events. This inability to browse the internet limits the usefulness of many of these systems.
Three alternatives to Bard that can access current internet content and are worth exploring are:
Perplexity.ai: Available free on the web with account sign in optional.
Bing: Available free on the web in Microsoft Edge with Microsoft account sign in.
ChatGPT Plus: Available for $20 per month in a web browser or in an iPhone app. In late May 2023, Microsoft announced that the free edition of ChatGPT will gain access to Bing, as well.
