Google has announced a range of updates for its AI chatbot, Bard, which include support for Japanese and Korean, new visual search functionality, and a dark mode. The most significant of these updates, however, is the removal of Bard’s waitlist and the availability of the system in English in 180 countries and territories. Google has also promised a number of additional features, including AI image generation powered by Adobe and the integration of third-party web services such as Instacart and OpenTable.
Bard was released two months ago for selected users in the US and UK, and has been criticised for its performance when compared to competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot. However, Google has added a host of new features, as well as upgrading Bard to use its new PaLM 2 language model, which the company says will improve its general answers and usability. In particular, Google has focused on improving Bard’s performance in handling coding queries, with the chatbot able to tackle debugging and explain code in more than 20 languages.
Other features that have been added include the ability to analyze images, offer images in query results, and generate visuals using AI. Bard can also be prompted with an image, powered by Google Lens, to identify objects within pictures. Another significant development is the integration of Adobe’s AI image generator, Firefly, into Bard. This will be the first of many third-party integrations for Bard, with Google promising further connections to apps and services across the web.
Despite the updates, there remains a question over Bard’s purpose. While Google has stressed that the bot is not a replacement for search, many users continue to use it as such. With other AI chatbots exploring ways to integrate with the wider web, it remains to be seen whether Bard will become a more significant part of Google’s AI ambitions.
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