Another AI-powered chatbot has launched: Google Bard.
According to Google, Bard will answer users’ questions in a human-like manner, help them to draft lists and even start writing their first novel, if they so wish.
But it has limitations, with Google unable to promise Bard will not share misinformation with users.
While only available in the UK and US for now, Google hopes to roll it out in other countries and languages eventually.
What is Google Bard?
Bard is Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot, which uses the internet to give human-like answers to questions users want to know.
When users type in a question, rather than provide them with relevant web pages, Bard gives actual answers.
According to Google, Bard will help people come up with new ideas and even plan events by helping users to compile to-do lists and invitations.
Bard was pre-trained on data from publicly available sources, allowing it to pick up patterns in language to predict the next word in a sequence.
Although responses are checked against safety metrics to stop Bard from producing offensive answers, the chatbot is at risk of sharing misinformation and biases.
Google said Bard is “not yet fully capable of distinguishing between what is accurate and inaccurate information” because it predicts answers based on others it has learnt from.
How do I sign up to Bard?
Some over-18s in the UK and US can access Bard from Tuesday.
People can sign up to the Bard waitlist here. You will need a Google account.
The sign up page says Bard is “your creative and helpful collaborator, here to supercharge your imagination, boost your productivity, and bring your ideas to life”.
It adds: “Bard is an experiment and may give inaccurate or inappropriate responses. You can help make Bard better by leaving feedback. Join the waitlist and try it for yourself.”
How does it compare to ChatGPT?
When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, it had more than a million users within a week.
ChatGPT, which is backed by Microsoft and deployed to Bing internet searches, was developed by OpenAI.
Bard differs in that it has a “Google It” button which accesses internet searches. And it can quotes sources and directs users to a relevant webpage.
