When Google launched Bard in February last year, many had said that the product was launched in a hurry. The AI chatbot, hoping to compete with ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing, made factual errors in its demo video, and it was called out by the internet. However, with time, Bard has improved its quality of responses and even launched a number of new features in the last few months.
And now, reports have surfaced that Google is working on an even more enhanced version of Bard, running on its latest model Gemini. And this version of Bard won’t be free for users.
Say hello to Bard Advanced
Reports say that Google is said to be working on an upgraded version Bard, which is expected to offer advanced features through its paid subscription Google One. Known as “Bard Advanced,” this enhanced version is powered by Google’s new large language model, Gemini Ultra, making it a competitor to ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.
According to developer Dylan Roussel, who spotted the new version, Bard Advanced will be available through Google One as part of a paid subscription. Users might also enjoy a free trial period of three months. While the feature is still in development, it is anticipated to allow users to explore various topics and leverage Bard’s advanced capabilities, including enhanced maths and reasoning skills.
Furthermore, Roussel discovered additional updates and shared screenshots revealing a feature codenamed Motoko. This feature has the potential to enable users to create their custom bots. It remains unclear whether users will have the ability to share these bots or if there will be a cost associated with accessing this feature. In a similar move last year, OpenAI announced that GPT Plus subscribers would have the capability to create and share custom bots.
Meanwhile, developer Bedros Pamboukian also said that Google is working on an “advanced” tier, indicating the company’s commitment to offering a more sophisticated AI experience.
Previously, Google introduced its large language model, Gemini Pro, for developers and enterprises. As part of the development tools, Google AI Studio allows free access to Gemini Pro and Gemini Pro Vision for app development needs, with up to 60 requests per minute.
In the coming months, Google plans to launch Gemini Ultra, its most capable model designed for highly complex tasks. The company aims to fine-tune and safety test the model further, incorporating feedback from partners.
Bard’s recent updates
Bard, in November last year, made headlines for getting a feature that can prove to be super useful for people who work with video content regularly.
In a blog post, Google announced that it is improving Bard’s ability of understanding and analyzing YouTube videos.
In its blog titled “Expanding Bard’s understanding of YouTube videos”, the tech giant said that they are taking “the first steps” in the AI chatbot’s ability to understand YouTube videos. Giving an example of the same, the blog post mentions that if someone is looking up some cooking recipes online, they can ask Bard about its details.
A report by The Verge stated that the feature is right now available as an opt-in experience only. Hence, it might take some time to be available for all users.
Google also announced some new updates for Bard in the last few months, including making it available to teenagers, enabling it to help with math equations, letting it generate charts from data users include in their prompts, letting it summarise more emails at a time, and so on.
Source: India Today
