With the rising popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT language model, Google saw itself forced to react quickly with a similar product,Google Bard. The large language model was launched at a dedicated event and expanded to many regions of the world after Google I/O, leaving out one significant areaciting privacy concerns: the EU. Google is now fixing this oversight along with launching some hotly anticipated features.
First and foremost, Google announced ina blog postthat its chatbot is now available in over 40 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, German, Hindi, and Spanish. At the same time, Bard is launching in Brazil and “across Europe,” with the companyconfirming to The Vergethat this includes all countries in theEuropean Economic Area. It has already made its way to the UK during the earlier rollout.
At the same time, the company is launching more features. It’s now possible to listen to responses, making for an almost Google Assistant-like experience when you use the voice input option to converse with Bard. The big difference to Assistant is that you have to hit a sound icon to start listening, so it’s not (yet) as seamless as the good old voice assistant.
The other exciting launch is the addition of Google Lens. It’s now possible to import images to the chatbot, which you can combine with written prompts to get help from Bard. The feature is only available in English for now, but Google says it’s coming to more languages soon.
Just like Microsoft allows you in Bing Chat, Google makes it easier for you to adjust the way Bard responds, giving you five different options: simple, long, short, professional, and casual. If you use the chatbot to generate content, this might make it easier to get the right style without manually prompting the language model to create text in a certain way.
Google Bard now offers a sidebar where you can easily access past conversations, and just like in ChatGPT, it’s possible to rename them to properly match the topic or keyword of your choice. You can also pin the most important conversations to the top.
Coders can export generated Python code to Replit, joining the ranks of Google Colab. For those who want to share the actual Bard conversations they have with others, there is now the option to create shareable links. You can share all or parts of a conversation with Bard this way.
A full changelog can be found onGoogle Bard’s update page.
Bard and all other language models like it are still prone to errors, but they’re making big strides in versatility. Google Bard has come a long way since its inception, when it generated a wrong answer in a presentation, tanking Google’s stock in the process. The next big thing that’s likely on many people’s wishlist is an Android app, making it easier to use the service on mobile. In the meantime, you cangive Google Bard a shot on the web.
