Since ChatGPT took the internet by storm, there has been a surge in the race tobuild the next most powerful chatbot by major players in the tech sector. This competition has given birth to many notable chatbots like Claude, Copilot and Llama 2 and one of them is Google Bard AI or simply Bard. A top contender in the field of generative artificial (AI) in recent times.
In this article, I am going to talk about what it can do, how to access it, how to use it and its possible limitations. But before I delve into all of that, let me introduce you to what Google Bard AI is, especially those that are not familiar with it.
What Is Google Bard AI?
Bard AI is a large language model chatbot that is trained to answer questions and generate answers in an informative manner. It is developed by Google AI and was first released in March 2023. In December 2023, it was upgraded to a Gemini large language model for better performance. Gemini is believed to be a serious competition to OpenAI GPT-4 according to Google. Despite the fact that Bard is still at the experimental stages and performed below expectations after its initial launch, it has started gaining momentum lately. For more about ChatGPT, see What is chatgpt and what is it used for
What Can You Do With Bard AI?
Just like most generative chatbot, Bard can answer questions and generate answers. With that in mind, let’s look at the tasks it can actually perform in practical terms.
1 Answering Questions
Bard can provide answers to almost any question thrown at it. One good thing about Bard is that in every question you ask, it provides different variants of the answer. In other words, if you ask “What is food?” for example, it will generate three different versions of the same answer also known as draft. Thereby, giving you more choices to pick from or mix and match. It also offers you the opportunity to regenerate the drafts if you’re not satisfied.
2 Content Creation
Bard can generate creative contents such as poems, scripts for screenplays or tv shows. It can even introduce plots, dialogues and characters. In addition to that, it can also compose music in different mood just like ChatGPT.
3 Coding
Programmers and students can query Bard to write code snippets to perform certain tasks. It can also provide coding guides in different areas such as web development, game, artificial intelligence etc.
You may also like: ChatGPT VS Bard AI, Which One Is Better?
4 Language Translation
Bard can translate over 100 languages from text to text and more interestingly, it also generates the translated language into speech( audio) along with the text. This is very helpful in pronouncing foreign words. Although, this capability doesn’t come as a surprise as Bard takes advantage and leverages the Google translation tool.
5 Summarises Web Pages
Bard can also help you summarise a web page if you are just looking for the main points or ideas. All you need to do is to submit the URL of the page to Bard or alternatively, you can just copy the entire text on the page and paste it as a prompt and it will summarise it for you.
6 Learning New Things
Bard, just like most chatbots, also enjoys sharing new things with its users. It can give insights on a wide range of topics, all you need to do is ask!
How To Use Bard AI
Bard AI is free to use and it can be accessed on the official website. To start using it, visit bard.google.com/chat and login with your google account if you’re not logged in already. However, if you don’t have a google account, you have to create one and login back to the chat page. Next, type in your question (prompt) and Bard will be ready to take you on an informative chat journey.
To view other variants (drafts) of Bard’s answers, click on the drop down arrow located just on top of your last prompt beside the audio icon. Here you can view all the drafts gracefully generated by Bard.
Limitations Of Bard AI
Despite the fact that Google engineers have been working day and night just to make sure Bard becomes the best chatbot ever created, the chatbot still struggles with some limitations just like its rivals.
1 Can Sometimes Exhibit Bias
Given the fact that Bard is still at the experimental stages, it is not surprising that some of its responses may echo bias and others may not always be accurate.
2 Contextual Understanding
Bard can struggle with vague or complex questions and as a result, it may misinterpret the context of the question. For instance, it can find it difficult to distinguish between sarcasm and a figurative text.
3 Critical Thinking
Just like every artificial intelligence, Bard lacks creative and critical thinking capabilities and as a result, its knowledge is limited to the depth and extent of its training.
4 Ethical Concerns
Owing to the fact that Bard is still at the experimental stages and still learning, some users may take advantage and exploit it to generate misinformation and harmful contents.
Final Note
Despite the limitations of Bard AI, it seems to be a promising chatbot, given the fact that it has not matured. I have used it and I can say that it’s a serious competitor to ChatGPT and who knows, it might even overtake it. Bard has excelled in some important areas where ChatGPT has failed without trying. Hence, you can try it out and see how Bard AI works and its efficiency.
