Bard, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot from Google, is now available as an experimental online service that can be accessed on any browser, whether on desktop or mobile devices. While it’s not yet integrated into Google Search engine like ChatGPT is with Bing, the chatbot is quickly gaining popularity due to its advanced natural language processing. In this guide, we will learn how to use Bard AI and explore its full range of applications.
Find out more: Robotic Process Automation vs. Artificial Intelligence: What’s the Difference?
What Is Bard AI
Bard is a large language model (LLM) by Google that has been around since the end of May 2023. It has been trained on a massive database of text and code. This gives it the ability to generate text, translate languages, write different creative text formats, and answer your questions promptly. Bard uses deep learning off a corpus including books and the world wide web. It also utilizes sentiment analysis, and the syntax and semantics of human language.
The specific LLM Bard uses is called LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) originally announced during the May 2021 Google I/O Conference. This is a fairly advanced model as it can help with customer service and can be used to formulate learning material, research hypotheses, and test theories. There have even been sentience claims that it could be made self-aware like humans, but most AI researchers have ridiculed the idea.
Good to know: you can now get AI chatbots for your website.
How to Use Google Bard AI
Bard is available online and can be accessed on any desktop or mobile browser, regardless of your operating system. It’s currently supported for three languages: American English, Japanese, and Korean, and available in 180 countries.
- You only need a Google account to get started.
- The following screenshot shows how to access Bard on the Samsung Internet Browser on an Android handset. Likewise, you can do it on an iPhone or iPad with Safari or other browsers.
- If you are using a desktop device running Windows, macOS, Linux, or ChromeOS, you can sign in to your Bard account using your Google credentials.
- Once you sign in, you will be greeted by Bard’s direct interface, which is currently in an experimental stage and may be modified in the future. The interface shown below may slightly differ from the one you see.
- As the end user, all your interactions with Bard are limited to the “Enter a prompt here” box. The experience is similar to chatting with another person.
- After each interaction, you can use the thumb icons to give feedback to Bard on whether its response was good or bad. You can also export your responses or click the “Google it” button to find related searches. Click “View other drafts” to see additional responses which may be more customizable for your needs.
- One of the best features of Bard is that it is a highly enhanced search engine that understands natural conversation style. This means that you can type in very detailed and methodical search queries, such as “give me the names of the last two female tennis players who won all four Grand Slam tournaments in a given year.” Bard will then give you a very accurate response. If Google were to integrate Bard into their search engine, it would make things much easier for users.
- With just a few keywords, you can generate text in a variety of formats, including poems, songs, essays, and movie dialogue. The results may sound like good prose, but if you read carefully, you may find that they don’t always make sense. Of course, you’re expected to improve upon the original first draft with your own creative writing skills.
- Are you a fan of different accents? Let Bard help you with a Scottish, Irish, Indian, or Southern American accent. How accurate it is? Well, there is a disclaimer at the bottom: “Bard may display inaccurate or offensive information that doesn’t represent Google’s views.” So, tread carefully,
- There are many other things you can do with Bard including generate a programming code in any language, test the responses to a question for their accuracy, and develop your conversation skills (now you have a real partner to practice with.)
Tip: For Mac users, you can now use ChatGPT on your Desktop.
How to Reset and Delete Bard Activity
After using Bard responses for a while, you may be overwhelmed by an array of data. So, from time to time, you need to reset and delete your online activities to manage it better. Here’s how we can do it from the Bard dashboard.
- To reset your current chat on a desktop device, look to the left and click a button called “Reset chat.” On a mobile device, you will need to click on the “three bars” icon on top before you can reset the chat.
- The above will display a message “Your current chat session will not be saved, but you can view your prompts in your Bard activity.”
- Click the “Reset” text to confirm the resetting. This will completely clear the board and you can view a fresh chat interface.
- While resetting does clear the chat messages on your screen, it doesn’t delete your Google activity.
- To do that, click “Bard Activity” which is on the left of a desktop device. On a mobile device, click the three-bar icon followed by “Bard Activity.”
- Click the “Delete” button to choose how much of Bard’s activity you want to delete starting from last hour to last day and always, and a custom range.
- You will be asked to confirm all the activities that you want to delete, and even preview them.
- Once you confirm, all the Bard activity will be deleted, and you will get a “Deletion confirm” message.
Tip: Other than text, you can also make use of artificial intelligence to create images.
Frequently Asked Questions
What precautions you need to take while using Bard AI?
Google itself says “Don’t rely on Bard’s responses as medical, legal, financial or other professional advice. You are responsible for your use of code, which may be subject to an open-source license.”
Currently, Bard suffers a few disadvantages including giving repetitive responses. If you’re fluent in English, you would find it more limited in terms of creating different sentence styles. However, if you’re a non-native English speaker with not very good command over the language, Bard can help you improve your prose skills initially.
Another disadvantage is that Bard wants to be seen as neutral or not very heavily biased towards extreme viewpoints. Despite its ability to do accents and dialogues, it isn’t very comfortable with colloquial and everyday speech.
If you want to use Bard to help you with your writing, the onus is on you to apply your mind and tweak your audience expectations for better quality output. If you’re planning to use tools like Bard or ChatGPT to pass an examination or publish books and content, do remember that plagiarism software may detect any malpractice. So it’s best to use these tools as a brainstorming software.
Bard vs. ChatGPT: which is better?
While both Bard and ChatGPT are LLMs with capability to generate natural text and bring creative responses, both have their strengths and weaknesses. ChatGPT has been around for much longer than Bard and is currently much better trained.
Bard has similar features as ChatGPT but you don’t need a Windows 11 device, or Edge browser, Bing Chat and other criteria, so the steps are fewer. It works with all browsers and operating systems. which is a huge plus in its favor.
When we asked the question to Bard on how it fares against ChatGPT, it answered that it may be slightly better at understanding natural conversation style and providing comprehensive and up-to-date answers.
How to use dark theme in Bard AI?
To change Bard’s light theme to a dark one, look to your left bottom on a desktop screen where you’ll find the theme icon indicated by a half-moon. Clicking on it once turns the dashboard dark. It will be replaced by a sun icon so when you click on that, it will again turn light.
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