Google Launches Limited Waitlist for Bard AI Chatbot
Google opens an early access waitlist for Bard, its new AI chatbot powered by a lightweight version of LaMDA. The experimental tool currently lacks source footnotes but offers standard generative AI capabilities for U.S. and U.K. users.
Google opens early access to Bard, its new AI chatbot designed to compete with ChatGPT and Microsoft's Bing. Users in the U.S. and U.K. can now join a waitlist at bard.google.com to test this experimental collaborative tool. Google describes Bard as a way to boost productivity, accelerate ideas, and satisfy curiosity through conversational generative AI.
The chatbot runs on a lightweight, optimized version of Google's LaMDA language model and excels at handling "NORA" queries, which are questions without a single right answer. Bard generates its responses all at once rather than typing them out word-by-word, though it still predicts the next word based on previous context. The interface includes a prominent disclaimer warning that the bot may display inaccurate or offensive information.
Unlike Microsoft's Bing chatbot, Bard does not provide footnotes or web sources to help users verify the accuracy of its responses. After receiving an answer, users have the option to give a thumbs up or down, reset the conversation, or click a "Google It" button to transfer their query to the traditional search engine. This limited rollout serves as an ongoing experiment as Google navigates the accuracy and ethical challenges of conversational AI.