Google opens up access to its AI chatbot Bard
Those interested in trying out Bard can join the waitlist directly from this email that Google is disseminating
As with most AI chatbots, there are some caveats
Google does give us some of the typical warnings that even Microsoft mentioned about Bing’s use of ChatGPT. For example, because AI chatbots learn from public usage of these tools, responses often reflect the real-world stereotypes and biases that people have. And even if a response from a chatbot sounds like it is correct, it might actually deliver “inaccurate, misleading or false information.”
Google points out that Bard is an experiment
As an example, Google shows how Bard incorrectly called the ZZ plant Zamioculcas zamioculcas when it should have been Zamioculcas zamiifolia (come on Bard, everyone knows that). Seriously though, Bard will often give users several different drafts of its response which allows them to select the one that starts off the best for them. You can narrow down the response by asking a follow-up question. Or, if you’re not happy with the answers, you can always ask Bard the same query again.
Interestingly, Bard did help Google write the blog post which it posted today. As Google said, “Like all LLM-based interfaces, it didn’t always get things right. But even then, it made us laugh.” Google says that it will use feedback from Bard’s early users to make the AI chatbot better and better.