Google Bard AI Gets Significant Upgrade Ahead Of Microsoft September Event

Google is sparing no effort in a bid to ensure its AI bot, Bard delivers better performance compared to its biggest rival, ChatGPT from OpenAI. Much to the search giant's delight, Google Bard AI is actually getting better.

Google has been trying to be at the forefront of the AI segment lately. In line with this, the company unveiled a new AI search tool to shorten lengthy articles and simplify coding last month.

Now, Google's widely popular Bard AI has received a significant upgrade. Interestingly, this upgrade is rolling out ahead of the Microsoft September event, where we might get our first glimpse into new features for ChatGPT.

Useful new features coming to Bard AI

Google has added Bard Extensions that lets users command the AI-powered chatbot to do tasks that involve other Google apps and services, like Gmail or Outlook.

According to a post on Bard's official website, these extensions are enabled by default. However, you can disable them at any time. Moreover, Bard is getting a "Google It" button that serves as a fact-checking tool. You can use the button to double-check answers using Google Search.

The chatbot is getting more collaborative and accessible as well. The new Bard Extensions are currently only available on the English language version of the bot. However, Google is updating Bard in more than 40 other supported languages to get some of the latest features of the English version.

This is a major expansion for Bard, which arrived after Mirosoft's Bing Chat and OpenAI's ChatGPT. In fact, the word on the street is that Meta is gearing up to unveil a ChatGPT-4 rival in the coming months. In the meantime, let's check out the three big ways Google Bard is getting better with the latest upgrade.

How is Google Bard getting better with the new upgrade?

Bard Extensions

Bard Extensions are the biggest new feature since it uses data from other Google apps, including YouTube, Google Flights, Google Docs or Drive. Notably, the feature can use multiple services simultaneously in the same conversation.

Undoubtedly, the feature could impact how people plan a presentation or a dinner date. However, it will be interesting to see whether Bard will be able to effectively parse the data (convert data from one format to another) and provide useful answers.

Google It

The Google It button uses Google Search to try and find substantiating evidence. Users will be able to click on highlighted text to "learn more about supporting or contradicting information found by Search" online.

This feature could turn out to be a helpful reality check considering many AIs are usually inaccurate.

Sharing with friends

As if that weren't enough, Google Bard is getting easier to share with friends. When you share a link to a Google Bard conversation, the recipient will be able to continue the conversation on their own.

There's a button to share a link to a Google Bard conversation. However, it is worth noting that both users are not able to type responses to Bard in the same shared conversation,

Nevertheless, this feature will allow you to send friends a link to a restaurant Bard recommended to see if they want to go. For example, they could continue the conversation and ask Bard about the menu at the restaurant.

These recently rolled-out features give serious Google users several new ways to interact with Google's chatbot. Still, It is unclear how they'll use it and how helpful Bard will be.

Also, it is notable that Google is trying to keep pace with rival Microsoft in terms of integrating its AI bot into its apps and services. In fact, there is a possibility that Google might integrate Bard directly with ChromeOS in the future.