What is Google Bard? How the AI chatbot works, how to use it and why it's controversial
Google's AI chatbot Bard formulates human-like responses to prompts given by the user, similar to ChatGPT
AI advocates say there’s a place for apps like ChatGPT, Google Bard in classrooms
Advocates for artificial intelligence say there have been no widespread reports of cheating or harmful content in classrooms that have implemented AI learning for kids.
Bard is one of the newest artificial intelligence chatbots. The AI chatbot, created by Google, was released in March 2023, after an initial announcement in February. The software was released to a limited amount of users for testing.
The chatbot comes on the heels of the release of one of its major competitors, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and has similar functions to that model.
Here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about the new AI chatbot and how it functions.
Google's Bard is one of the biggest players in the AI game along with ChatGPT. (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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- What is Google Bard?
- What is the controversy around Google Bard?
- How does Google Bard work?
- Who has access to Google Bard?
- What other AI services does Google have?
- Why was Google Bard launched in March 2023?
- Why did Google name its chatbot Bard?
- How is Bard different from Google search?
1. What is Google Bard?
Google Bard is an AI chatbot that creates answers to questions and responses to prompts given by its user.
On the Google Bard website, you simply sign in to a Google account to gain access to the chatbot.
Google Bard is an AI chatbot that provides human-like responses to prompts given by the user. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
On the homepage, you can also find some information about Bard.
"Meet Bard: your creative and helpful collaborator, here to supercharge your imagination, boost your productivity, and bring your ideas to life," the website states.
There is also a disclaimer that reminds users that this it is in the experimental stages and that the accuracy of Bard’s answers could be flawed.
"Bard is an experiment and may give inaccurate or inappropriate responses. You can help make Bard better by leaving feedback," the website explains.
Since its release, there has been controversy about an inaccuracy in one of Bard’s answers.
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Alphabet's market value dropped significantly after producing a factual error in one of its responses for a promotional video. ( Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
2. What is the controversy with Google Bard?
In its short time in user’s hands, Google Bard has already been no stranger to controversy.
Google released a video on social media showing an example of how Bard works in February.
In the video, Bard is asked "What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old about?"
Bard then provided a list of three "facts," one of which was incorrect.
One of the "facts" provided about the telescope was that it was the first to take a picture of an "exoplanet," which is a planet outside our solar system, according to Dictionary.com. The fact is that the first photos of this nature were taken in 2004 by the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which was operated by the European Southern Observatory, according to NASA.
Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Google and Alphabet. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
After the video went public, Google Bard's parent company, Alphabet, lost $100 billion in market value in just a single day, according to Search Engine Journal.
When chatbots get things wrong, these errors are often known as "hallucinations."
3. How does Google Bard work?
Google Bard is powered by Language Model for Dialogue Applications, or LaMDA. The AI "draws information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses," Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a Google blog post.
Google Bard uses both public dialogue and web data to answer questions, according to Search Engine Journal.
4. Who has access to Google Bard?
Google Bard is available to anyone who has a Google account.
All you need to access Google Bard is a Google account. (Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
When the software was first released in March 2023, users who wanted access to the software had to join a waitlist.
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5. What other AI services does Google have?
In addition to Bard, Google is home to other AI software, including MusicLM, which was announced by the company in January 2023. MusicLM is an AI tool that takes text descriptions and turns them into music. This tool is still in its experimental phases.
Other AI services under Google are Vertex AI and Vertex AI Workbench. These are mainly for developers to help them create machine learning models. Several other AI services Google provides for developers in particular are AutoML, Cloud Natural Language, Dialogflow, Media Translation, Speech-to-Text, Text-to-Speech, Timeseries Insights API, Translation AI, Video AI and Vision AI.
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The Google Cloud site also highlights some tools that can be used for AI Infrastructure such as Deep Learning Containers, Deep Learning VM Image, GPUs, TensorFlow Enterprise and TPUs.
Google provides various AI services in addition to its chatbot Bard. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Google also has AI services businesses can use to help their workflow. One of these is Contact Center AI. This service allows companies to create virtual AI contact centers to assist human agents in call center environments. There is also AI that improves customer experience by helping them shop for products and increasing the quality of Google searches.
For those who need assistance with AI, Google also provides solutions to those inquiries with its AI Readiness Program. This program helps businesses establish how AI can be incorporated into their business model.
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6. Why was Google Bard launched in March 2023?
When Google Bard was first launched, the number of people who had access to it was limited. Launching in March allowed it to be competitive with ChatGPT while still developing the software in its experimental stages. At its start, it was only available to users in the United States and Britain.
7. Why did Google name its chatbot Bard?
Google Bard gets its name from the term that means "poet" or "storyteller." One of the most famous poets and playwrights, William Shakespeare, was known as "The Bard of Avon."
The chatbot's name is inspired by creative storytellers, also known as bards.
8. How is Bard different from Google search?
Google Bard and Google search have different capabilities and are used for different tasks. Google Bard is a chatbot. With Bard, you can type in a prompt, and the chatbot will spit out a response to that task. Chatbots are more of a conversational tool with which you can ask follow-up questions. There are lots of different things Bard can do, like make suggestions, answer queries, write up prompts and help you brainstorm, just to name a few.
One of the main differences between Google search and Google Bard is how fast you can get a response. With Google Bard, you can ask a question and get an answer almost instantly. With search, you'll go through articles that are given in Google's search results to find your answer and conduct your research.
The two services are good for different things. If you need to conduct lots of research on a topic, Google search may be your best bet so you can gather as much information as possible. If you need something written up quickly, that would be a task for Bard.
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