For quite some time now, Microsoft and Google have been engaged in a rivalry to outdo each other, especially after the introduction of Bing AI and Google Bard. The competition appeared to have favored Bing momentarily when Jordi Ribas, the Head of Engineering and Product for Bing, announced an image generator for Bing and Edge. However, Google is now bridging the gap by equipping Bard with its text-to-image tool.
Reinforcing its commitment to stay competitive in the AI space, Google is introducing new features to Bard to match the image generator recently announced by Bing. Along with the recently added code generation, Bard is also getting several new capabilities, and a preview of features like Gmail export is also on the horizon.
Google’s AI writing tool, Bard, is expanding its capabilities with the addition of a new feature that allows users to export generated text to Gmail and Google Docs while retaining formatting like subject lines. This new feature is particularly useful as Workspace’s Trusted Tester program is currently not widely available.
Google is leveling up its AI language model Bard by making it available in English in 180 countries and territories, and removing the waitlist for access. Bard now includes new features, such as the ability to export generated text to Gmail and Google Docs, and a dark theme. Google is also promising upcoming features such as AI image generation with Adobe and integration with third-party web services like Instacart and OpenTable.
Google’s chatbot Bard was released just two months ago to select users in the US and UK, but it has already struggled to keep up with rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot. However, Google is looking to level the playing field by adding new capabilities and upgrading Bard to use its new PaLM 2 language model, which should improve its general answers and overall usability. Despite being an experiment and not a replacement for its search engine, the removal of the waitlist and availability in English in 180 countries and territories is a promising step for Bard’s future.
Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, is set to offer an improved coding and developer experience with several new features. To enhance the accuracy of code citations, links will take users to specific blocks of code or quoted text. The “Export” button will also be expanded beyond Google Colab to Replit, starting with Python.
After Microsoft’s Bing AI introduced an image generator, Google’s Bard is also taking a step forward by announcing its own text-to-image tool, in an effort to stay ahead in the competition. For example, if you share a picture of two dogs and ask Bard to “write a funny caption about these two,” the image analysis feature will recognize the subjects and dog breeds. This feature will be powered by Google Lens.
Bard will now support image recognition to accompany text prompts. For example, you can submit an image of two dogs and ask Bard to “write a funny caption.” With the help of Google Lens, image analysis will recognize the subjects and dog breeds to generate responses. Additionally, results will now include accompanying photos, such as tourist spots when requested.
Google has also announced that it will be integrating Firefly, Adobe’s AI image generator, into its chatbot Bard. This is significant because Adobe has touted the “ethical” nature of its training data, which sets it apart from other AI image tools that have faced criticism and lawsuits. Additionally, Firefly will be the first of many third-party integrations for Bard, which Google is calling “tools.” Google plans to connect Bard to various apps and services across the web in the future.
Google is taking the integration of Bard to the next level by incorporating first and third-party app connections. The former includes popular Google apps like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Maps, which will add a new layer of functionality to Bard, such as showing information as a table with the ability to add columns or displaying locations on a map. Meanwhile, third-party integrations will feature image generation using Adobe’s Firefly generative AI models, where you can provide a prompt in Bard and let another service handle the action.
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