Google brings generative AI to the Bard chatbot

Google brings generative AI to the Bard chatbot

San Francisco, October 5, 2023

Google is bringing generative AI capabilities from its Bard chatbot to its mobile virtual assistant. The product, called Assistant with Bard, will undergo limited testing before rolling out to Android and iOS devices in the next few months.

Google says Assistant with Bard can help with tasks like travel planning, social media captioning, email searching, shopping list creation, and messaging. With user permission, Assistant can access Google apps like Gmail and Google Drive and answer questions like „Keep me updated on my important emails.“

In addition to entering text, users can interact with the assistant using voice and images using a phone’s microphone and camera. On Pixel and certain Samsung phones, long-pressing the power or home button brings up a conversation pop-up window where Bard can respond to questions about what’s on the screen.

According to Google vice president Sissie Hsiao, the addition of AI technology makes Assistant overall “more intuitive, smarter and more personalized.” The new integration has the potential to increase user familiarity with Bard, which previously lagged behind ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing AI and Snap’s My AI among those who have used or heard of it.