Ai has been the talk of the day these past few months. Since the launch of ChatGPT, We’ve gotten to witness the rise of many powerful AI Tools and modules. Google Bard was Google’s answer to ChatGPT and is currently in experimental mode, but still offers many interesting functionalities.

Google Bard is a large language model, also known as a conversational AI or chatbot trained to be informative and comprehensive. It is trained on a massive amount of text data, and it is able to communicate and generate human-like text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions. For example, Google Bard can provide summaries of factual topics or create stories. So basically;

• Bard is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, which allows it to generate text, translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, and answer your questions in an informative way.
• Bard is still under development, but it has learned to perform many kinds of tasks, including
  • I will try my best to follow your instructions and complete your requests thoughtfully.
  • I will use my knowledge to answer your questions in a comprehensive and informative way, even if they are open-ended, challenging, or strange.
  • I will generate different creative text formats of text content, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, emails, letters, etc. I will try my best to fulfil all your requirements.

In this article, we will discuss what Google Bard is and list some of the best ways to use Google Bard. We will also provide some tips on how to get the most out of Google Bard.

Background

• In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a chatbot based on the GPT-3 family of large language models (LLM). ChatGPT quickly gained worldwide attention and became a viral Internet sensation.
• Alarmed by ChatGPT’s potential threat to Google Search, Google executives issued a “code red” alert and reassigned several teams to assist in the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) efforts.
• In a rare and unprecedented move, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who had stepped down from their roles as co-CEOs of parent company Alphabet in 2019, were summoned to emergency meetings with company executives to discuss Google’s response to ChatGPT.
• Earlier that year, Google had unveiled LaMDA, a prototype LLM, but did not release it to the public. When asked by employees at an all-hands meeting whether LaMDA was a missed opportunity for Google to compete with ChatGPT, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, alongside Google AI chief Jeff Dean, stated that while the company had similar capabilities to ChatGPT, moving too quickly in that arena would represent a major “reputational risk” due to Google being substantially larger than OpenAI.
• In January 2024, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis teased plans for a ChatGPT rival, and Google employees were instructed to accelerate progress on a ChatGPT competitor, intensively testing “Apprentice Bard” and other chatbots.
• Pichai assured investors during Google’s quarterly earnings investor call in February that the company had plans to expand LaMDA’s availability and applications.

In short, Google was alarmed by the success of ChatGPT and took steps to develop a ChatGPT rival, which they eventually released as Bard.

The History of Google Bard

The history behind this powerful AI Chatbot can be simplified thus;

• On February 6, 2024, Google announced Bard, a conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot powered by LaMDA.
• Bard was first rolled out to a select group of 10,000 “trusted testers”, before a wide release scheduled at the end of the month.
• Bard is overseen by product lead Jack Krawczyk, who described the product as a “collaborative AI service” rather than a search engine.
• The technology was developed under the codename “Atlas”, with the name “Bard” in reference to the Celtic term for a storyteller.
• Google’s stock fell eight per cent after an “underwhelming” February 8 livestream showcasing Bard.
• Google employees criticized Pichai’s “rushed” and “botched” announcement of Bard.
• Pichai defended his actions by saying that Google had been “deeply working on AI for a long time”.
• Google opened up early access for Bard on March 21 in a limited capacity.
• Shortly after Bard’s initial launch, Google reorganized the team behind Google Assistant to focus on Bard instead.
• Google researcher Jacob Devlin resigned from the company after claiming that Bard had surreptitiously leveraged data from ChatGPT; Google denied the allegations.
• Pichai revealed on March 31 that the company intended to “upgrade” Bard by basing it on PaLM, a newer and more powerful LLM from Google, rather than LaMDA.
• Bard gained the ability to assist in coding in April.
• Microsoft began running advertisements in the address bar of a developer build of the Edge browser urging users to try Bing whenever they visit the Bard web app.
• Google is working to integrate Bard into its ChromeOS operating system and Pixel devices.
• During the annual Google I/O keynote in May 2024, Pichai and Hsiao announced a series of updates to Bard, including the adoption of PaLM 2, integration with other Google products and third-party services, expansion to 180 countries, support for additional languages, and new features.

How to use Google Bard

Using Bard is very simple and straightforward. To use Google Bard, go to bard.google.com and log in with your Google account. Agree to the terms of service and you can start using it. Bard is a text field where you enter your prompt or question and get an answer from Bard, similar to ChatGPT.

Google provides random ideas to get you started with Bard. For example, it may suggest a fast, balanced, vegetarian meal high in protein and fibre. Bard will provide a list of meal options. You can continue the conversation by asking for more meals or recipes.

Bard has some unique features. After each response, it offers two other drafts of the same answer. You can access these drafts by clicking “View other drafts” or regenerate drafts for a different answer. Editing the prompt or using a new prompt can help improve the results.

All chats with Bard are in a single scroll window, which is deleted if you close it. You can view and delete prompts in “Bard activity,” but the actual answers are not accessible. However, you can export responses to Gmail, Google Docs, or Replit by clicking the share icon under an answer and selecting the desired export location.

Some of the best ways to use Google Bard

There are many ways one can choose to exploit this AI Tool. It could range from simply seeking answers to questions to complex code generation. some of the most common use cases include;

Brainstorming

Bard can be a very helpful tool for brainstorming. Here are a few tips on how to use Bard for brainstorming:

1. Start with a clear goal. What are you trying to brainstorm ideas for? Once you know what you’re looking for, it will be easier to focus your brainstorming session.
2. Be open to all ideas. Don’t judge or dismiss any ideas at this stage. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible, no matter how crazy they may seem.
3. Use Bard to generate ideas. You can use Bard to generate ideas in a variety of ways. For example, you can ask Bard to give you 20 ideas for a specific topic, or you can ask Bard to help you come up with a creative solution to a problem.
4. Refine your ideas. Once you have a list of ideas, you can start to refine them. This may involve combining ideas, discarding ideas, or changing the details of your ideas.
5. Take action. Once you have a few ideas that you’re excited about, it’s time to take action. This may involve starting a project, writing a paper, or making a presentation.

Here are some examples of how you can use Bard for brainstorming:

• If you’re a writer, you can use Bard to generate ideas for characters, plot twists, or settings.
• If you’re a business owner, you can use Bard to generate ideas for new products, services, or marketing campaigns.
• If you’re a student, you can use Bard to generate ideas for research papers, essays, or presentations.
• If you’re just looking for some creative inspiration, you can use Bard to generate ideas for poems, songs, or stories.

Writing

Bard can be used for writing in a variety of ways. If you’re struggling to get started on a piece of writing, Bard can help you write your first draft. Simply type in an outline or a few sentences, and Bard will generate the rest of the text for you. You can then use this draft as a starting point for your own writing.

You can as well use it for editing and proofreading your work. Once you’ve written your piece of writing, Bard can help you edit and proofread it. Bard can identify grammar errors, spelling mistakes, and other errors in your writing. It can also suggest ways to improve your writing style.

Here are some additional tips for using Bard for writing:

• Be specific with your requests. The more specific you are with your requests, the better Bard will be able to help you. For example, instead of asking Bard to “write a blog post about dogs,” you could ask Bard to “write a blog post about the history of dog breeds.”
• Use keywords. When you’re brainstorming ideas or researching your topic, use keywords. Keywords will help Bard narrow down its search results and provide you with more relevant information.
• Be patient. Bard is still under development, so it’s not always perfect. Sometimes it will make mistakes. If you’re not happy with Bard’s response, try rephrasing your request or providing more information.

Research

Bard is a large language model from Google AI, trained on a massive dataset of text and code. It can generate text, translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, and answer your questions in an informative way. Bard can be used for research in a variety of ways, including:

• Generating research ideas: Bard can be used to generate research ideas by brainstorming topics, identifying gaps in the literature, and proposing new research questions.
• Gathering research data: Bard can be used to gather research data by collecting and summarizing information from a variety of sources, including scholarly articles, news articles, and social media posts.
• Analyzing research data: Bard can be used to analyze research data by identifying patterns, trends, and relationships.
• Writing research papers: Bard can be used to write research papers by generating text, organizing information, and citing sources.
• Presenting research findings: Bard can be used to present research findings by creating slides, videos, and other multimedia presentations.

Translation

If you intend to explore Bard’s translation abilities, be aware that Google’s large language model (LLM) is still in the process of learning more languages. Google emphasizes that Bard’s responses may be inaccurate or inappropriate as it is an experimental feature. To verify Bard’s responses, Google advises using the “Google it” button.

That said, Bard can be used for translation in a variety of ways, including:

• Translating documents: Bard can be used to translate documents, such as contracts, reports, and articles.
• Translating websites: Bard can be used to translate websites, making them accessible to a wider audience.
• Translating apps: Bard can be used to translate apps, making them more user-friendly for people who speak different languages.
• Translating video and audio: Bard can be used to translate video and audio, making it possible to watch and listen to content in different languages.
• Translating conversations: Bard can be used to translate conversations, making it possible to communicate with people who speak different languages.

Here are some of the benefits of using Bard for translation:

• Accuracy: Bard is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, which helps it to produce accurate translations.
• Speed: Bard can translate text very quickly, making it a valuable tool for businesses and individuals who need to translate documents or websites on a regular basis.
• Cost-effectiveness: Bard is a free service, which makes it a cost-effective option for businesses and individuals who need to translate text.

Here are some of the limitations of using Bard for translation:

• Context: Bard can sometimes struggle to understand the context of a sentence, which can lead to inaccurate translations.
• Cultural nuances: Bard can sometimes struggle to understand cultural nuances, which can lead to translations that are not appropriate for the target audience.
• Human judgment: Bard is still under development, and it is not a replacement for human judgment and expertise. It is important to review translations produced by Bard before using them in a professional or public setting.

Using Bard for coding

As of April 21, Google announced that their AI Chatbot, Bard can code. Now how efficient is Bard when it comes to writing codes? Just like ChatGPT, Bard occasionally will generate codes that do not work based on our testing. We tried creating a simple Syntax Highlighter WP plugin with both ChatGPT and Bard and in both cases, the codes for the plugin bricked the test websites. Both tool couldn’t provide a quick fix for the provided codes.

Even though coding with Bard is still lacking very much, one can still use it to learn one to two things. Bard can still thus help you;

• Writing new code from scratch: Bard can be used to generate code in a variety of programming languages, including C++, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, and TypeScript. This can be helpful for programmers who are new to a language or who need to quickly generate code for a new project.
• Debugging existing code: Bard can be used to debug existing code by identifying errors and suggesting solutions. This can be helpful for programmers who are stuck on a bug or who want to improve the performance of their code.
• Learning new programming languages: Bard can be used to learn new programming languages by generating code examples and explanations. This can be helpful for programmers who are self-teaching or who want to learn a new language quickly.
• Collaborating with other programmers: Bard can be used to collaborate with other programmers by sharing code and ideas. This can be helpful for programmers who are working on a team or who want to get feedback on their code.
• Automating tasks: Bard can be used to automate repetitive tasks by generating code that performs the tasks automatically. This can be helpful for programmers who want to save time or who need to perform a task that is difficult to automate manually.

Entertainment

If you are bored, then Bard can as well come to the rescue! Use Bard to generate jokes that will make you LOL. It can as well generate stories and poems for you.

Google Bard limitation

Bard is still under development. As such, it is only natural that there be some limitations or cons. According to Google, here are five limitations of Bard;

• Accuracy: Bard can sometimes generate inaccurate or misleading information, even if it presents the information convincingly. This is because Bard is trained on a massive dataset of text, which includes both accurate and inaccurate information. Bard is still learning to distinguish between accurate and inaccurate information, and it may sometimes make mistakes.
• Bias: Bard can be biased in its responses, depending on the data it is trained on. For example, if Bard is trained on a dataset of text that is mostly written by men, it may be more likely to generate responses that are biased towards men. Google is working to address this limitation by training Bard on a more diverse dataset of text.
• Persona: Bard can sometimes generate responses that are inconsistent with its persona. For example, if Bard is asked to pretend to be a doctor, it may generate responses that are not consistent with medical knowledge. Google is working to address this limitation by training Bard on a more comprehensive dataset of text that includes information about different personas.
• False positives and false negatives: Bard can sometimes generate false positives and false negatives. A false positive is when Bard generates a response that is considered to be harmful or offensive, even though it is not. A false negative is when Bard does not generate a response that is considered to be harmful or offensive, even though it should. Google is working to address this limitation by training Bard to better understand what constitutes harmful or offensive content.
• Vulnerability: Bard can be vulnerable to hacking and manipulation. For example, an attacker could try to trick Bard into generating responses that are harmful or offensive. Google is working to address this limitation by making Bard more secure.