What is Google Bard?

What is Google Bard?

Google Bard is an AI-powered chatbot tool designed by Google to simulate human conversations using natural language processing and machine learning. In addition to supplementing Google search, Bard can be integrated into websites, messaging platforms, or applications to provide realistic, natural language responses to user questions.

How does Google Bard work?

Google Bard was updated with the Gemini large language model in December 2023. 

Gemini and the models that preceded it -- Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM 2) and Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) -- are based on Transformers, Google's neural network architecture released in 2017. Because Google released the Transformer architecture as open source, it has been the framework for other generative AI tools, including the GPT-3 language model used in ChatGPT.

Bard is designed around search. It aims to allow for more natural language queries, rather than keywords, for search. Bard's AI is trained around natural-sounding conversational queries and responses. Instead of just giving a list of answers, it provides context to the responses. It is also designed to help with follow-up questions -- something new to search. Bard has a share conversation function and a double-check function that helps users fact-check generated results.

Bard can also access information from many Google apps and services, including YouTube, Maps, Hotels, Flights, Gmail, Docs, and Drive, letting users apply Bard to their personal content.

The initial version of Bard used a lighter-model version of LaMDA that requires less computing horsepower to scale to more concurrent users. The incorporation of the PaLM language model lets Bard be more visual in its responses to user queries. Bard incorporates Google Lens, which lets users upload images in addition to written prompts. The incorporation of Gemini enables more advanced reasoning, planning, and understanding.

When was Google Bard released?

On March 21, 2023, Google began opening access to Bard, inviting users to join a waitlist. On May 10, 2023, Google removed the waitlist and made Bard available in over 180 countries and territories.

Google Bard was initially announced on Feb. 6, 2023, with a vague release date. Many believed that Google felt the pressure of ChatGPT's success and positive press leading them to rush Bard out before it was ready. For example, during a live demo by Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, it provided a query with a very wrong answer.

In the demo, a user asked Bard the question: "What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old about?" In Bard's response, it mentioned that the JWST "took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system." Astronomers took to social media to quickly point out that the first image of an exoplanet was taken by an earthbound observatory in 2004, making Bard's answer incorrect. The next day, Google lost $100 billion in market value -- a decline attributed to the embarrassing mistake.

Who can use Google Bard?

Users must be 18 or older and have a personal Google account. Bard is available in more than 230 countries and territories and more than 40 languages.

What are the limitations of Bard?

Like all AI chatbots, Bard must learn and be trained to give the correct answer from inaccurate or misleading information, as was evident during its first demo. AI training is an endless, compute-intensive process since there is always new information to learn.

Is Bard free?

As of this writing, Google has given no indication that it will charge for use. Google has no history of charging customers for services -- its cloud business notwithstanding. The current assumption that Bard will be integrated into Google's basic search engine indicates that it will be freely available for use.