Revolutionizing AI: Major Expansion of Google’s Bard Chatbot

• Google
• Chatbot
• Bard

Google's Bard AI chatbot is taking a significant leap forward. The tech giant announced on Tuesday that Bard will now have access to Google’s entire suite of tools, including YouTube, Google Drive, Google Flights, and others, paving the way for a more comprehensive user experience.

Integrating these tools with Bard will enable users to perform diverse tasks. For instance, Bard can now assist users in planning an upcoming trip by providing real flight options or summarizing meeting notes from a document saved in Google Drive.

“Bringing all the power of these tools together will save people time — in 20 seconds, in minutes, you can do something that would have taken maybe an hour or more.” - Sissie Hsiao, general manager for Google Assistant and Bard.

Stepping Up the Game

This comprehensive upgrade to Bard follows its public release six months ago, marking the most significant update since. The expansion comes amid an intensifying race among tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI to develop and roll out increasingly sophisticated consumer-facing AI technologies.

Previously, Bard could assist with tasks such as drafting essays or planning events based on Google’s large language model, an AI algorithm trained on vast data collections. With the new updates, Bard can now draw information from other Google services. For example, users can ask Bard to provide a template for writing a best-man speech and suggest relevant YouTube videos for inspiration.

User Control and Security

While these extensions significantly enhance Bard's capabilities, users maintain control and can disable them anytime. Moreover, users can link their Gmail, Docs, and Google Drive to Bard, enabling the tool to analyze and manage their personal information. However, Google assures that users' personal Google Workspace information will not be used to train Bard or for targeted advertising, and users can revoke the tool's access to their information at any time.

Fact-checking and Sharing Conversations

Bard, the AI-powered chatbot, has undergone two major updates. Firstly, it now includes a "double-check" button that allows users to verify the accuracy of Bard's responses. This feature highlights parts of the reaction where Google Search confirms or contradicts the chatbot's information. This helps address a common AI problem called "hallucinations," where chatbots confidently assert false facts.

Secondly, Bard now enables users to share their conversations with others, allowing them to continue the chat. These new features provide a glimpse into how Google might incorporate generative AI into its suite of services in the future.

Despite its significant advancements, Bard is still a young player in the AI field, and Google continues to improve it based on user feedback. Nevertheless, Bard represents a significant step in the evolution of AI chatbots, and we can expect more innovations in the future.