MC Explains: The tech powering Google's AI chatbot Bard, and what it can do

Representative Image

With the announcement of Bard, Google's conversational AI companion, the search and internet giant has made it clear that it wants to maintain its dominance in the search and internet market.

The announcement is still fresh, but the potential Bard holds could shape the future of AI.

In the other camp, Microsoft has pinned hopes on OpenAI's internet sensation, ChatGPT. It has already announced integrations with the Edge browser and its search engine, Bing.

Microsoft has been trying to muscle into Google's search domain for a while now. With ChatGPT, they finally have something to entice the customers with.

So let's take a look at Bard and what it can do.

Like ChatGPT, Apprentice Bard is a natural language conversational bot, but leaving the definition at that, is selling it short.

Bard is based on Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), a neural network for conversation trained on human dialogue and stories.

This method allows for more nuanced, human-like responses to queries, allowing Bard to engage in open-ended conversations.

The first generation of LaMDA debuted in 2021, and the second generation was brought online in 2022. Famously, Google engineer Blake Lemoine was placed on administrative leave after he claimed that the model had gained sentience.

He came to this conclusion after LaMDA had some interesting responses to questions on morality, identity, religion and the three laws of robotics.

Google denied these claims, of course, but it's still an interesting fact.

Bard, like ChatGPT, uses a prompt system. It responds to requests or user inputs and will remember the previous context, which allows it to continue the conversation naturally.

Its main stock in trade is the ability to provide detailed and context-specific answers to your inputs. So far, Google hasn't told us what else the Bard is capable of, but there is no reason not to assume it could do whatever ChatGPT does.

At least I know I will be disappointed if it can't write songs, it is called 'The Bard', after all.

One area where Bard has ChatGPT beat is up-to-date information. ChatGPT's knowledge bank is limited to events up to 2021.

Bard, on the other hand, can access the Internet to provide real-time information.

As for accuracy, both Google and OpenAI admit that the bots can, in some cases, provide false information. Bard answered a question incorrectly during its live demo.

Like Microsoft integrating ChatGPT into Bing and Edge, Google will assimilate Bard into Google Search.

Google hopes that it will make searching easier. Instead of browsing through twenty links to find what you want, you can get there faster by asking Bard to pull up the information.

Bard will likely see some use in other Google products, like Maps or Lens, where you can ask Bard to give you directions or tell you more about a book on the shelf, for instance.

The search and technology giant also plans to let third-party developers use Bard. This means we could see apps powered by Google's technology.