The much awaited Google Bard generative AI chatbot has recently edged closer to a complete public release. It is now in open beta.
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The good news is that there is already a waiting list for Google Bard; the bad news is that there is no way of knowing when you will be granted access to the conversational AI system, even if you may join up today (opens in new tab) using a personal Google account (available only in the US and UK).
Google Bard is a generative AI system, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which means it has been trained using a large body of human-created web content to precisely forecast the appropriate words in the context of a response.
Some observers claimed Google had been caught off guard following Microsoft’s popular AI-enabled Bing launch in February (with the ChatGPT-powered co-pilot). Google introduced it a few weeks ago in a less-than-impressive demo(opens in new tab).
Yet, Google Bard now seems a little less unfinished. On Tuesday, Google explained the still relatively restricted availability in a blog post that Bard naturally contributed to writing.
“Bard can help you be more productive, develop ideas more quickly, and satisfy your curiosity. You may request advice from Bard on how to achieve your goal of reading more books this year, ask him to explain quantum physics in layman’s terms, or ask him to help you get creative by scripting a blog post.”
Google’s LaMDA Large Language Model—yes, the one that was alleged to have achieved sentience—is the foundation of Google Bard. But, it’s not the most advanced or intelligent form of LaMDA. Instead, Google is employing a “lightweight” version and plans to replace it with a more intelligent one later. Consider current LaMDA to be similar to OpenAI’s GPT-3 and the upcoming version to be similar to GPT-4.
In Google’s graphics, Bard appears to function similarly to ChatGPT. You can type the query of your choice in the text-prompt section, and at the top is a greeting from Bard that reads, “Welcome!” “I’m Bard, your helpful and imaginative partner. Even though I have limits and can’t always do things perfectly, your criticism will help me get better.”
Google Bard appears to differ from ChatGPT in that it was designed from the ground up for collaboration and provides you with numerous drafts to pick from rather than just one response. This produces a kind of Infinite branching effect where you finally get to choose your own path for creating AI content.
Stay tuned for further information as soon as we get accepted into Google Bard and are taken off the waiting list.
