Google has announced a substantial update for Bard, its generative AI chatbot and competitor to ChatGPT. The company claims that this update will significantly boost Bard’s capabilities by integrating Gemini, Google’s latest and most advanced AI model. The incorporation of Gemini is expected to enhance Bard’s reasoning, planning, understanding, and other functionalities.
Gemini is available in three sizes – Ultra, Pro, and Nano – making it adaptable for deployment on a range of devices, from mobile phones to data centers.
The rollout of Gemini to Bard will occur in two phases. Initially, Bard will receive an upgrade with a specially tuned version of Gemini Pro. In the following year, Google plans to introduce Bard Advanced, offering users access to the top AI model, starting with Gemini Ultra.
The version of Bard featuring Gemini Pro will initially be available in English across more than 170 countries and territories globally, with additional languages and countries, including the EU and U.K., to follow soon.
Before its public launch, Gemini Pro underwent industry-standard benchmark testing. Google reports that Gemini outperformed GPT-3.5 in six out of eight benchmarks, including significant multitask language understanding tasks and grade school math reasoning. However, it’s worth noting that GPT-3.5 is over a year old, leading some to view this as more of a catch-up move rather than an outright improvement, as highlighted by TechCrunch’s Kyle Wiggers.
The enhancements brought by Gemini are expected to make Bard more proficient in tasks such as content understanding and summarization, reasoning, brainstorming, writing, and planning.
Sissie Hsiao, VP and GM of Assistant and Bard at Google, described this upgrade as the “biggest single quality improvement of Bard since we’ve launched.”
Gemini Pro will initially power text-based prompts in Bard, with plans to expand to multimodal support (texts, images, or other modalities) in the coming months.
In 2024, Bard Advanced will debut, offering a new experience powered by Gemini’s most capable model, known as Gemini Ultra. This model can comprehend and act on various types of information, including text, images, audio, video, and code, with multimodal reasoning capabilities. Gemini Ultra can also understand, explain, and generate high-quality code in popular programming languages, according to Google.
Google will launch a trusted tester program for Bard Advanced before a broader release early next year. Additionally, the company will subject Bard Advanced to additional safety checks before its official launch.
This update follows several improvements to Bard over the past eight months, including features like answering questions about YouTube videos and integrating with various Google apps and services. With Gemini, Google aims to bring users “the best AI collaborator in the world,” acknowledging that Bard is not quite there yet.