July Bard update: New features, languages, countries

Under his leadership, Google has been focused on developing products and services, powered by the latest advances in AI, that offer help in moments big and small. Whether it’s applying AI to radically transform our own products or making these powerful tools available to others, we’ll continue to be bold with innovation and responsible in our approach. And it’s just the beginning — more to come in all of these areas in the weeks and months ahead. Hassabis explains that as DeepMind’s research becomes “more mature,” it will be able to develop “AI-first products” that could be integrated across Google’s offerings such as YouTube, Chrome, and Android. Their next big release, “Project Astra”, is billed as a “universal AI agent” that processes text, audio, and video in real time, naturally responding to almost any query. Its demo video shows a woman speaking to it about a problem on a whiteboard in front of her, before asking the system if it knew where she left her glasses—it did.

We’ve been working on an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, that we’re calling Bard. And today, we’re taking another step forward by opening it up to trusted testers ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks. You can paste a picture of you and your friend at a concert and ask Bard to provide a series of funny captions about the photo.

Google launches Bard chatbot to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT

To begin with, Bard was released on a “lightweight model version” of LaMDA. Google said this allowed it to scale the chatbot to more people, as this “much smaller” model needed “significantly less computing power”. Google Bard has hung up its virtual quill, in case you hadn’t realized. The ‘large language model’ AI was first revealed by Google back in February 2023 – in a scramble to compete with Microsoft’s ChatGPT-powered Bing, which had just been launched at the time – but now, Bard no longer exists. Aside from Anthropic and Bard, Google does have some additional prongs in its AI strategy.

• Specifically, Gemini uses a fine-tuned version of Gemini Pro for English.
• Google Gemini is a family of multimodal AI large language models (LLMs) that have capabilities in language, audio, code and video understanding.
• The feedback gained here will be used to refine Bard before expanding access.
• That means news, analysis, recommendations, reviews and more for just about anything you can watch, including sports!

” But increasingly, people are turning to Google for deeper insights and understanding — like, “is the piano or guitar easier to learn, and how much practice does each need?. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. ” Learning about a topic like this can take a lot of effort to figure out what you really need to know, and people often want to explore a diverse range of opinions or perspectives.

Its Google Assistant search tool has been integrated across the company’s products since its launch in 2016. Even though the technologies in Google Labs are in preview, they are highly functional. Yes, as of February 1, 2024, Gemini can generate images leveraging Imagen 2, Google’s most advanced text-to-image model, developed by Google DeepMind. All you have to do is ask Gemini to “draw,” “generate,” or “create” an image and include a description with as much — or as little — detail as is appropriate.

Whether it’s a child inventing a game, friends dreaming up their next adventure, or an entrepreneur coming up with a new business idea, our ability to imagine new possibilities is one of our most innate human qualities. It is unknown what impact this mistake will have on Bard’s release date. Considering, Google has not updated its statement about the upcoming release, we can assume it will still be next month. / Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we’ve tested sent to your inbox weekly. How precisely Bard delivers useful, factual dialogue while addressing ethical AI concerns promises to shape product perceptions.

Android 15 released to AOSP, Pixel update in ‘coming weeks’

It may be sorely needed, as Google just changed its privacy policy to allow its AI products to scrape the internet for your public data. Initially, Bard used Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) for its training so it could become conversational. However, it now also uses Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM 2) to power Bard’s more advanced features such as coding and multimodal search (coming soon). Google Bard is an AI chatbot, similar to ChatGPT and just like ChatGPT, it is powered by a language model to converse with users. You can now access Bard in new languages and countries, customize responses, add images to your prompts and more. Specifically, the Gemini LLMs use a transformer model-based neural network architecture.

Bard is now known as Gemini, and we’re rolling out a mobile app and Gemini Advanced with Ultra 1.0. The Google Pixel 9 Pro builds on the solid foundation laid by the Pixel 8 Pro, and very quickly became my favourite release. From the enhanced auto white balancing to the much faster 50MP processing — this device is an absolute powerhouse. Philips Hue Secure cameras (which launched earlier this year) are also adding support for Google Home and Alexa, with the ability to show live feeds on Nest Hub and in the Home app. The Philips Hue Sync Box 8K is a new set-top box that will cost $349, a $100 price increase over the prior model. This new device will allow for vastly improved functionality, though, thanks to the addition of HDMI 2.1.

At the time of Google I/O, the company reported that the LLM was still in its early phases. Google then made its Gemini model available to the public in December. We’re starting to open access to Bard, an early experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI. We’re beginning with the U.S. and the U.K., and will expand to more countries and languages over time. Bard will also be able to tap into all kinds of services from across the web, with extensions from outside partners, to let you do things never before possible.

The best part is that Google is offering users a two-month free trial as part of the new plan. For example, when I asked Gemini, “What are some of the best places to visit in New York?”, it provided a list of places and included photos for each. Soon, users will also be able to access Gemini on mobile via the newly unveiled Gemini Android app or the Google app for iOS. Previously, Gemini had a waitlist that opened on March 21, 2023, and the tech giant granted access to limited numbers of users in the US and UK on a rolling basis.

While LLMs are an exciting technology, they’re not without their faults. For instance, because they learn from a wide range of information that reflects real-world biases and stereotypes, those sometimes show up in their outputs. And they can provide inaccurate, misleading or false information while presenting it confidently. For example, when asked to share a couple suggestions for easy indoor plants, Bard convincingly presented ideas…but it got some things wrong, like the scientific name for the ZZ plant. You can use Bard to boost your productivity, accelerate your ideas and fuel your curiosity. You might ask Bard to give you tips to reach your goal of reading more books this year, explain quantum physics in simple terms or spark your creativity by outlining a blog post.

Users sign up for Gemini Advanced through a Google One AI Premium subscription, which also includes Google Workspace features and 2 TB of storage. When Bard became available, Google gave no indication that it would charge for use. Google has no history of charging customers for services, excluding enterprise-level usage of Google Cloud.

Top competitors include ChatGPT, Microsoft‘s enhanced Bing search, and Anthropic‘s Claude. And for users, it means we‘ll all likely need a Google account to sign in and customize Bard based on our search history and preferences. On desktop, users will be able to click into the search bar and toggle over to a chat icon to activate the Bard conversational interface. Google has shown that Bard will be tightly integrated into its search engine on both desktop and mobile. Only after multiple phases of closed beta testing will Bard likely reach early access previews and eventually a full public launch.

Next month, we’ll start onboarding individual developers, creators and enterprises so they can try our Generative Language API, initially powered by LaMDA with a range of models to follow. Over time, we intend to create a suite of tools and APIs that will make it easy for others to build more innovative applications with AI. We have a long history of using AI to improve Search for billions of people.

Google renamed Google Bard to Gemini on February 8 as a nod to Google’s LLM that powers the AI chatbot. “To reflect the advanced tech at its core, Bard will now simply be called Gemini,” said Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, in the announcement. Although it’s important to be aware of challenges like these, there are still incredible benefits to LLMs, like jumpstarting human productivity, creativity and curiosity.

In blind evaluations with our third-party raters, Gemini Advanced with Ultra 1.0 is now the most preferred chatbot compared to leading alternatives. Bard was also integrated into a range of Google apps and services, allowing users to deploy its abilities without leaving what they were working on. It could work directly with English text in Gmail, Docs and Drive, for example, allowing users to summarize their writing in situ. Bard was an experimental AI chatbot built on deep learning algorithms called ‘large language models’ (or LLMs), in this case one called LaMDA.

And so, when using Bard, you’ll often get the choice of a few different drafts of its response so you can pick the best starting point for you. You can continue to collaborate with Bard from there, asking follow-up questions. And if you want to see an alternative, you can always have Bard try again.

For example, as is the case with all advanced AI software, training data that excludes certain groups within a given population will lead to skewed outputs. Users must be at least 18 years old and have a personal Google account. In other countries where the platform is available, the minimum age is 13 unless otherwise specified by local laws. Also, users younger than 18 can only use the Gemini web app in English. Many believed that Google felt the pressure of ChatGPT’s success and positive press, leading the company to rush Bard out before it was ready. For example, during a live demo by Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, it responded to a query with a wrong answer.

At each stage, Google will evaluate the results and make enhancements. Given the massive scale of Google products, releasing an unproven AI chatbot too fast could be disastrous. This high-profile mistake within minutes of Bard‘s unveiling forced Google to rethink its timeline. Prematurely releasing an inaccurate chatbot could damage trust in the brand.

Jasper.ai’s Jasper Chat is a conversational AI tool that’s focused on generating text. It’s aimed at companies looking to create brand-relevant content and have conversations with customers. It enables content creators to specify search engine optimization keywords and tone of voice in their prompts. Prior to Google pausing access to the image creation feature, Gemini’s outputs ranged from simple to complex, depending on end-user inputs. A simple step-by-step process was required for a user to enter a prompt, view the image Gemini generated, edit it and save it for later use. However, in late February 2024, Gemini’s image generation feature was halted to undergo retooling after generated images were shown to depict factual inaccuracies.

The hype around conversational AI exploded with ChatGPT‘s viral launch in late 2022. Now, Google is primed to unleash its own AI chatbot called Bard into the frenzy. While Assistant with Bard doesn’t have a confirmed release date just yet, images and video shared by 9to5Google give us an idea of how it will look and function. Gemini’s latest upgrade to Gemini should have taken care of all of the issues that plagued the chatbot’s initial release. According to Gemini’s FAQ, as of February, the chatbot is available in over 40 languages, a major advantage over its biggest rival, ChatGPT, which is available only in English.

Further down the road, Google plans to integrate other apps and services, including Docs, Drive, Gmail, and Maps, directly into Bard. Bard will also be able to utilize third-party services from across the internet, such as Adobe Firefly, Adobe Express, Kayak, OpenTable, ZipRecruiter, Instacart, Wolfram, and Khan Academy. Pricing of the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL starts at $999 and $1,099, respectively, for a device with 128 GB of built-in storage. The latter feels short for a phone that costs a dollar below $1,000 (the Pro iPhone models start with 256 GB of memory), but the free year of Gemini Advanced and the perks it offers partially make up for the shortage. That said, I recommend doubling the base storage for an extra $100 or quadrupling it for $219 over the base version. You can spec the phones with up to 1 TB of memory, but only in the low-key obsidian color opton.

The name change also made sense from a marketing perspective, as Google aims to expand its AI services. It’s a way for Google to increase awareness of its advanced LLM offering as AI democratization and advancements show no signs of slowing. But Bard‘s arrival makes one thing certain―conversational AI is now central to the search wars as tech giants race to define the future of online information. Teaching an AI system to chat helpfully at scale without hiccups will demand rigorous innovation. Bard will play a prominent role in that evolving discussion as conversational AI moves centre stage in technology and business.

We’ve learned a lot so far by testing Bard, and the next critical step in improving it is to get feedback from more people. Today we’re starting to open access to Bard, an early experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI. This follows our announcements from last week as we continue to bring helpful AI experiences to people, businesses and communities. Sundar is the CEO of Google and Alphabet and serves on Alphabet’s Board of Directors.

With the subscription, users get access to Gemini Advanced, which is powered by Ultra 1.0, Google’s most capable AI model. In its July wave of updates, Google added multimodal search, allowing users the ability to input pictures as well as text to the chatbot. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards.

Each of our five picks has been tested and compared so you know what the best option is for you if you want to create videos using AI technology. We also tested three of the best AI synthetic video generators — these are AI video generators that only need a text prompt — so you can create AI videos easier than ever. You can also use images in your prompts thanks to Google Bard’s multimodal functionality from PaLM 2.

It’s a platform that’s being integrated into everything from the new Bing to a range of plugins for websites. Google Bard extensions, allow other apps to integrate into Bard, from Gmail to Adobe Firely, similar to ChatGPT plugins. Plagiarism is a problem with plenty of chatbot AI, and not just Bard. ChatGPT will not provide citations unless properly asked — which you can learn how to do in our guide to getting the most out of ChatGPT.

Google sees it as a complementary experience to Google Search — which just got its own huge AI upgrade. Still, you’ll see a “Google It” button next to responses when you use Bard that takes you to Search. If Google follows the current trend for AI chatbot pricing it will be between $10 and $20 per month. ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro and Copilot Pro are all priced at that level.

To my pleasant surprise, Google equipped all Pixel 9 Pro versions with 16 GB of RAM. That’s a hefty jump over the 12 GB of RAM of the Pixel 8 Pro and more than the onboard memory of an entry-level MacBook Air and Pro, guaranteeing seamless multitasking and AI-powered interactions. Recording instantly shareable video with the Pixel 9 Pro is as easy as snapping photos, and this includes footage in low-light scenes or with longer zoom. Overall, the phones are as tough as their price tags suggest, though I’d still opt for a case to protect them from scratches and damage caused by heavier tumbles. There are plenty of original and third-party options worth considering.

After mobilizing its workforce, the company launched Bard in February 2023, which took center stage during the 2023 Google I/O keynote in May and was upgraded to the Gemini LLM in December. Bard and Duet AI were unified under the Gemini brand in February 2024, coinciding with the launch of an Android app. Today, we’re introducing new updates to Bard, including image capabilities, coding features and app integration. Plus, we’re expanding access around the world, introducing more languages and ending the waitlist. First and foremost, Google removed the waitlist for Bard and opened the chatbot to over 180 countries and territories.

The spokesperson said that the company plans to roll out Bard to other territories and languages too. Unlike ChatGPT, however, Bard will give several versions — or “drafts” — of its answer for you to choose from. You’ll then be able to ask follow-up questions or ask the same question again if you don’t like any of the responses offered. In ZDNET’s experience, Bard also failed to answer basic questions, had a longer wait time, didn’t automatically include sources, and paled in comparison to more established competitors.

However, we aren’t the only ones that found issues with Bard’s plagiarism. In their testing, our sister site Tom’s Hardware found that Google Bard plagiarized content from their own testing, claiming that it was Google’s own. When Tom’s Hardware Editor-in-Chief Avram Piltch confronted Bard with the allegation of thievery, the chatbot apologized.

You can also have Bard respond to your prompts with images and videos. Eventually, the chatbot will be able to generate completely new AI images thanks to an Adobe Firefly integration. The chatbot at this stage is an experiment that lets you do everything from planning a birthday party and drafting an email to answering questions on complex topics. It even lets you code and soon will feature an AI image generator thanks to Adobe.

During its Google I/O 2023 keynote on Wednesday, Google announced that Bard recently moved to the updated PaLM 2 large language model, and as a result, the chatbot is now far more powerful than it was at launch. We continue to take a bold and responsible approach to bringing this technology to the world. And, to mitigate issues like unsafe content or bias, we’ve built safety into our products in accordance with our AI Principles. Before launching Gemini Advanced, we conducted extensive trust and safety checks, including external red-teaming.

The entire Pixel 9 lineup runs the latest Android 14 version out of the box, and will be first in line to get Android 15 in the coming weeks. Long-term, Google has confirmed that the Pixel 9 phones will continue to receive timely updates for seven years after launch. For the first time, Google treated us to four new Pixel phones in 2024, making this ninth generation the most consequential expansion of its product lineup to date. The quartet of Android newcomers — Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold — rock a fresh design and a long list of hardware upgrades to go with a platform with deep AI integration. Today we’re launching Gemini Advanced — a new experience that gives you access to Ultra 1.0, our largest and most capable state-of-the-art AI model.

The Pro Pixel phones are worth spending big to upgrade, whether you or a gift recipient are newcomers or longtime users of the mobile platform. The Pixel 9 Pro is great for those who prioritize portability, while the 9 Pro XL is better for gaming and streaming video. Those who prioritize the last-mentioned features should feel free to spend an extra $100 on the XL. In addition to performing standard AI-powered tasks, the Pixel 9 phones feature Gemini Live, an AI-powered virtual assistant that you can talk to or text with via Google Messages.

Both use an underlying LLM for generating and creating conversational text. Google Gemini is a direct competitor to the GPT-3 and GPT-4 models from OpenAI. The following table compares some key features of Google Gemini and OpenAI products.

When we combine human imagination with Bard’s generative AI capabilities, the possibilities are boundless. Gemini is rolling out on Android and iOS phones in the U.S. in English starting today, and Chat GPT will be fully available in the coming weeks. Starting next week, you’ll be able to access it in more locations in English, and in Japanese and Korean, with more countries and languages coming soon.

For example, users can ask it to write a thesis on the advantages of AI. Both are geared to make search more natural and helpful as well as synthesize new information in their answers. Both Gemini and ChatGPT are AI chatbots designed for interaction with people through NLP and machine learning.

The Duet AI assistant is also set to benefit from Gemini in the future. Anthropic’s Claude is an AI-driven chatbot named after the underlying LLM powering it. It has undergone rigorous testing to ensure it’s adhering to ethical AI standards and not producing offensive or factually https://chat.openai.com/ inaccurate output. Some believe rebranding the platform as Gemini might have been done to draw attention away from the Bard moniker and the criticism the chatbot faced when it was first released. It also simplified Google’s AI effort and focused on the success of the Gemini LLM.

One AI Premium Plan users also get 2TB of storage, Google Photos editing features, 10% back in Google Store rewards, Google Meet premium video calling features, and Google Calendar enhanced appointment scheduling. Google’s decision to use its own LLMs — LaMDA, PaLM 2, and Gemini — was a bold one because some of the most popular AI chatbots right now, including ChatGPT and Copilot, use a language model in the GPT series. When Google Bard first launched almost a year ago, it had some major flaws. Since then, it has grown significantly with two large language model (LLM) upgrades and several updates, and the new name might be a way to leave the past reputation in the past. Bard will soon be able to include rich visuals in its responses to user prompts.

Its screen has a lower resolution and peak brightness, but I’m confident most will find these shortcomings imperceptible. Living with Gemini Live felt like having a knowledgeable and understanding companion who was always available. Depending on your or the gift recipient’s lifestyle, this could be a life-altering addition.

Their massive batteries, power-efficient hardware, and Android platform that’s tailor-made for it combined to help me get plenty of screen time without being mindful of my usage patterns. An outstanding camera has been a given for Google Pixel phones for years, and the Pixel 9 series carries on the tradition. Featuring a trio of high-resolution sensors, the camera setup of the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL is a rock-solid contender for the best in its class, as usual. Ergonomically, I found the standard Pixel 9 Pro and its 6.3-inch screen to be nothing short of a revelation, allowing me to use it with one hand on the move. This is a big deal, as older Pixel phones with the Pro moniker were big-screen only. Speaking of big screens, the 6.9-inch Pixel 9 Pro XL has identical measures as the Pixel 8 Pro, and I found it unwieldy when I tried to use it with one hand.

• This has been one of the biggest risks with ChatGPT responses since its inception, as it is with other advanced AI tools.
• It may be sorely needed, as Google just changed its privacy policy to allow its AI products to scrape the internet for your public data.
• It was previously based on PaLM, and initially the LaMDA family of large language models.
• Prior to Google pausing access to the image creation feature, Gemini’s outputs ranged from simple to complex, depending on end-user inputs.

Plus, there’s building evidence that Google has big plans for Bard’s future. Google has dropped hints in recent weeks that Bard will start invading your text messages or start screening your calls on Pixel phones. And Bard extensions allow you to connect outside applications to Google Bard to supercharge your productivity. Bard extensions got a major upgrade in the September Bard update, giving you the ability to integrate Bard with Docs, Drive, Flights, Hotels, YouTube and more.

Bard is a direct interface to an LLM, and we think of it as a complementary experience to Google Search. Bard is designed so that you can easily visit Search to check its responses or explore sources across the web. Click “Google it” to see suggestions for queries, and Search will open in a new tab so you can find relevant results and dig deeper. We’ll also be thoughtfully integrating LLMs into Search in a deeper way — more to come. Google also revealed a number of coding upgrades for Bard suggested by developers, including more precise citations, a dark theme, and an export button. Those who are obsessed with specs and benchmark scores might note that the Tensor G4 chip that powers the latest Pixels isn’t as powerful as the latest Qualcomm silicon. However, I didn’t feel lacking in power and speed while evaluating the Google phones.

Bard will then use Google Lens to analyze the photo before coming up with captions. Of course, every Pixel 9 comes with a vast array of AI-powered tools for enhancing the content captured by its camera. Many of these can blur the lines between capturing a memory or creating fiction by adding, removing, and altering objects in an existing photo.

Newer entries like Claude and Bing‘s AI chat focus on safety and transparency but lag in capabilities so far. And Alexa pioneered the voice assistant google bard ai launch date space but doesn‘t directly compete in web search dialogue. Bard is far from the only AI chatbot aiming to deliver helpful conversations.

Society is still grappling with how to harness AI‘s benefits while addressing its risks. Overall, Bard aims to combine the best of search relevance with AI-enhanced conversation. The breadth of knowledge Bard can master will also be limited at first, though Google plans to steadily expand its training over time.