Google opens early access to Bard AI today

Ben Schoon | Mar 21 2023 - 7:08 am PT

As ChatGPT, Bing, and others have opened the floodgates for generative AI, Google is today finally opening up access to its Bard AI starting today.

Announced in a blog post on The Keyword, Google confirmed that access to Bard is opening today in limited regions. This isn’t the public debut of Bard and its AI tricks, but it does offer the general public early access by signing up for a waitlist.

For this early access period, those who make their way through the waitlist will be able to use Bard’s ChatGPT-like research large language model (LLM) by giving Bard prompts to generate responses. This could include answering questions, generating ideas and outlines, simplifying complicated topics, and more.

Google does warn, though, that “Bard will not always get it right.” The company isn’t shy about sharing when Bard gets things wrong, discussing multiple examples in today’s post. This includes a prompt regarding indoor plants, where Bard incorrectly offered the scientific name for a plant species. Google notes that it has built-in some “guardrails” to help curb these sort of errors.

That includes the ability to see multiple versions of the same response from Bard by clicking “view other drafts.” Like ChatGPT and others, Bard will create a new response when you ask it the same question, but in Google’s case the user will be able to see three of those responses without reissuing the question.

Google also says that it views Bard as “complementary” to existing Google Search, rather than a replacement. As such, Bard’s replies will include a “Google it” button that directs users to traditional Google Search to see the sources Bard has pulled from and “dig deeper.”

As it stands today, it doesn’t appear that Bard shows sources nearly as prominently as Bing’s chat experience.

Further, Bard will be limited in “the number of exchanges in a dialogue.” Google also asks users to “rate responses and flag anything that may be offensive or unsafe.”

Starting today, Bard early access will be available in the United States and the United Kingdom in English. Google says that it will expand access “over time” to other countries and languages. The company further adds:

We’ll continue to improve Bard and add capabilities, including coding, more languages and multimodal experiences. And one thing is certain: We’ll learn alongside you as we go. With your feedback, Bard will keep getting better and better.

You can sign up for early access to Google Bard today at bard.google.com.