Google opens access to Bard in 180 countries & territories and debuts 3 new features

Months after Google launched Bard, the company's experiment with generative AI, the model is now accessible in 180 countries and territories with the initial waitlist removed.

Google made the announcement on May 10 at its 2023 I/O developer conference.

"It’s been less than two months since we launched Bard, our experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI, and I’m amazed to see the creative and imaginative ways people have interacted with it.

"Since we rolled out Bard — initially in the U.S. and the U.K. — we’ve gotten quite a bit of feedback and have adapted quickly to make your experience with it even better," said Sissie Hsiao, Vice President and GM, Assistant and Bard at Google in her keynote address.

Users will soon be able to prompt Google's Bard for image generation Users will soon be able to prompt Google's Bard for image generation Pulse Live Kenya

Google CEO Sundar Pichai also officially unveiled the company's new generative language model, PaLM 2, and Bard's new home.

"We recently moved Bard to PaLM 2, a far more capable large language model, which has enabled many of our recent improvements — including advanced math and reasoning skills and coding capabilities. In the past few weeks, coding has already become one of the most popular things people do with Bard," Hsiao noted.

3 new features on Google's Bard

As a nod to user feedback, Google has now incorporated three new features into Bard.

Source citations: Starting next week, we'll make citations even more precise. If Bard brings in a block of code or cites other content, just click the annotation and Bard will underline those parts of the response and link to the source.
Dark theme: Today we’re launching Dark theme, which is another feature developers have asked for — and one we think will help make interacting with Bard a lot easier on your eyes.
“Export” Button: We've heard that developers love the export to Colab feature, so coming soon, we're adding the ability to export and run code with our partner Replit, starting with Python.

How to prompt Bard export to Gmail How to prompt Bard export to Gmail Pulse Live Kenya

Future features Google will introduce on Bard

Still in development, Google is set to integrate the capabilities of Google apps and services you may already use — Docs, Drive, Gmail and others — into the Bard experience.

"Bard will also be able to tap into all kinds of services from across the web, with extensions from outside partners, to let you do things never before possible. In the coming months, we’ll integrate Adobe Firefly, Adobe’s family of creative generative AI models, into Bard so you can easily and quickly turn your own creative ideas into high-quality images, which you can then edit further or add to your designs in Adobe Express," the VP announced.

Watch the keynote speeches from the 2023 Google I/O developer conference below:-