Google Is Launching Its Bard AI Chatbot to the Public

New options allow users to pin, rename and pick up recent conversations with Bard. And Bard’s responses can now more easily be shared with the outside world through links. Elsewhere, Bard can now vocalize its responses thanks to a new text-to-speech AI feature.

Bard has been trained to recognize topics that are inappropriate for teens and has guardrails that are designed to help prevent unsafe content, such as illegal or age-gated substances, from appearing in its responses to teens. Google’s announcement follows the launch of San Francisco-based startup OpenAI’s online chatbot ChatGPT in November. Earlier this year, Microsoft added a similar chatbot to its search engine Bing. Unlike ChatGPT, however, Bard will give several versions — or “drafts” — of its answer for you to choose from. You’ll then be able to ask follow-up questions or ask the same question again if you don’t like any of the responses offered. Bloomberg’s story follows an Insider piece in April that found that Bard-testing contractors weren’t given enough time to corroborate and check the chatbot’s most accurate answer.

Is it possible for Bard to compete with ChatGPT AI?

Google notes that Bard is also a useful learning tool, as it allows teens to dig deeper into topics and help them better understand complex concepts. For instance, you can ask Bard to help you come up with an idea for your science fair, or brush up on your history by learning about a specific time period. Google is also bringing a math learning experience into Bard, that will allow anyone, including teens, to type or upload a picture of a math equation. Instead of simply spitting out the answer to the math equation, Bard will share a step-by-step explanation of how to solve it.

• Bard is a Google artificial intelligence chatbot that works similarly to ChatGPT.
• The chatbot uses a lightweight version of Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Application (LaMDA).
• Google first teased Bard back in February in what was seemingly a rushed response to the snowballing success of ChatGPT, a super-smart search engine/chatbot that leans on large language models (LLMs) to generate fresh content from simple prompts.
• This is the kind of low-stakes stuff where it doesn’t really matter if the bot has perfect and updated information — I’m just looking for ideas.
• Some were telegraphed and previewed in early May, but today marks their broad rollout.

If you’re already using tools like ChatGPT, you may be unaware of the cost each query contributes to OpenAi’s expenses; it’s roughly 0.36 cents. According to John Hennessy from Alphabet, “search utilizing AI might potentially cost Google 10 times more than typical search query”. For now, Google answers over 8.5 billion searches; if we just put it in context, it would burn more than $1.53 billion/day.

Google opens AI chatbot Bard to the public but warns not every response will be accurate

Draft 2, for example, did list two sources, though it didn’t have inline references for specific parts of the proposed workout. It came up with four exercises to be performed in a circuit (i.e. one after another instead of finishing three sets of each exercise before moving on to the next one). These were plank, Russian twists, side plank, bicycle crunches and hip raises. Put your brand in front of 10,000+ tech and VC leaders across all three days of Disrupt 2025. Amplify your reach, spark real connections, and lead the innovation charge. Google is opening up access to the chatbot with some guardrails in place to protect users.

Google Releases Bard AI Chatbot Amid Competition With ChatGPT

But Google claims that Bard is improving in measurable ways, particularly in areas like math and programming. It’s also gained extensions, including from Google’s own apps and services as well as third-party partners like Adobe, and the ability to explain code, structure data in a table, and surface images in its responses. While Bard initially opened for early access with an English version, starting in the U.S. and U.K. Back in March, the initial waitlist ended in May with a global rollout spanning some 180 countries and with additional support for Japanese and Korean. A notable omission thus far, however, has been the EU, with Google delaying the EU launch after a privacy regulator voiced concerns. If you don’t like the answer to your question, scroll down to the bottom of the page and use the thumbs down button, indicating a bad response.

The internet giant also introduced a swathe of new features to Bard, though some are only available in English at first. Check out Google Map’s time-traveling feature and why you may want to blur your home on Google Maps. You can delete individual questions or prevent Bard from collecting any of your activity. With Bing AI, you’ll have to either hit Chat or scroll up from search results to get to the conversation page, whereas you don’t have to do that for the Bard website.

There are, however, a few functional differences here compared to Bing AI. For one thing, Bing AI on desktop doesn’t offer speech-to-text in its input bar (though the app does), while Bard can tap your laptop’s microphone for you to dictate your queries. I have a tendency to ramble when speaking so I prefer to type, but I did use this tool to read out some questions to Bard and can verify it worked. Google has made Bard more widely available to users in the US and the UK today, and I have been spending some time with the company’s chatbot to see how its generative AI compares to ChatGPT and Bing AI.

The future looks promising with this new trend of AI tools emerging from left, right, and center. Top tech giants are in the fight to take the lead with massive data, and among them, Google has a possibility of leaping to success. However, the launch first-debug later strategy of OpenAI is providing them benefits for now.