Google Bard explained: All about the new ChatGPT rival

Here’s everything you need to know about Google Bard, what it does, how it can be used, how it rivals ChatGPT and other AI tools, and most importantly, where and when can you have a taste of the tech. Let’s begin with the basics.

What is Google Bard?

Google Bard is Google’s newest conversational AI tool, or in simpler words, a chatbot that users can converse with via text. The chatbot is intelligent enough to maintain context in a conversation and can be powered by both the knowledge of the web, while using artificial intelligence to understand conversations and deliver appropriate responses. Bard can be used on smartphones, laptops or desktops

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Bard is powered by Google’s LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) model, something the tech giant unveiled back at Google I/O 2021 and again in 2022 with an improved version. The language model on display at I/O was capable of conversing like a human being, involving elements like answering questions, asking for clarity wherever required, and solving complex tasks.

As Google puts it in its latest blog post, “Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models.” Google also mentions that Bard “can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries.”

Bard vs ChatGPT: What’s different?

Google’s Bard and OpenAI’s ChatGPT may be termed ‘rivals’, but they’re both essentially different branches of the same, continuously developing and improving technology. In fact, Bard’s LaMDA model and ChatGPT’s GPT-3 model are both based on the same neural network architecture – Transformer.

A comparison between the two would largely be irrelevant at this stage, given both tools are relatively in their nascent stages at the moment, being regularly improved with newer updates. While the LaMDA model can sometimes offer racist responses, ChatGPT is known to offer incorrect answers on some topics even today.

The key difference here at this point in time is that you can actually try ChatGPT yourself by creating an OpenAI account and heading over to the ChatGPT website. While the service is free for now, OpenAI is reportedly working on a more powerful, paid version of the tool for the future. Google Bard is relatively much newer in the scene and is not available for everyone just yet.

Who can access Google Bard?

Unlike ChatGPT, Google Bard is currently not available to the public for testing. The company has announced that the tool will soon be opened up to select trusted users, but we could expect it to open up to more users once Bard is past its ‘experimental’ status.

To conclude, if you’re waiting to try your hands on Bard’s capabilities, you’ll need to wait a little longer. We also still do not know if Google’s Bard will be a chargeable tool or a free one. But hey, you can still explore the possibilities of ChatGPT, which is currently free for everyone.