What is Bard and How it Can Help You?

Let me illustrate how you can use Google Bard for many internet things.

If the naysayers needed anything to change their minds about AI capabilities, it was 2023. Frankly, I was one among them who doubted if public-accessible AI could be any good.

Fast forward a few months, which included my hands-on experience with tools that can write, paint, and create music, and I can relate to people saying AI can take their jobs.

I mean, I didn’t expect this much refinement from the first-generation AI. And it bewilders me to think about the future where these machines can work side by side with humans, if not totally replacing us.

But I’m not here to cry about the frightening possibilities. Instead, I will showcase what one of the simplest of such AI tools, generative AI chatbots, Google Bard in particular, can do.

What is Google Bard?

Google Bard is a free text-to-output AI utility.

Currently, this is trained on Pathways Language Model 2 (PaLM 2), which is a Large Language Model (LLM), helping Bard to understand and generate human-like text. Such AI chatbots are powered by machine learning and also benefit from natural language processing (NLP) to respond conversationally.

Put simply, its training and underlying technology help Bard to understand similar to us and respond in kind. You can “talk” to Bard just like you would do to a fellow human. Consider this as a digital AI assistant to help get things done quickly.

Primarily, Bard’s role is to scrape information from the Google search and summarize while citing sources. However, there is a lot more to it that we are about to uncover shortly.

💡 Did you know that there are things Google Bard is better at than ChatGPT?

How to use Google Bard?

You will need a Google account to get started with it. If you don’t have one, register for it, and afterward, visit bard.google.com/.

The welcome screen hits about its capabilities.

⚠️ Importantly, this warns about not entering anything personal, like account passwords, in the prompt field since real people like us can review the inputs.

The prompt field is at the bottom, which can also take voice input.

Besides, one can opt for similar outputs by clicking the Regenerate draft at the top right of the response field, which gives three separate versions of the response.

Alongside, you have the speaker icon for listening to the outputs.

Finally, one can give feedback, verify its accuracy, copy, share & export, and modify from the panel located at the bottom of every response.

It supports prolonging the responses to the point it becomes no less than a standalone blog post. I opted for a Longer output three times in a row for a prompt, and it netted around 700+ words, with the text being nicely supplemented with images. That was a nice touch indeed!

So these were some of its features; now let’s check its AI magic in action.

How to Prompt Bard?

Here are a few examples to help you on your way!

#1. Internet Search

How to plan for a trip to antarctica?

Try to be as specific as possible, and don’t forget to crosscheck your answers! As far as trips go, AI travel planners are definitely there to stay, along with its other search capacities.

#2. Summarizing

Summarize:"content" or link

This is where you can paste the content for preparing a summary.

Alternatively, you can link the web source and let it read to make a synopsis.

#3. Writing

Help me write an email to my clients about my upcoming 15-day vacation, informing them I won't be available to take their calls, emails, etc. during this period.

You can try this to write emails, essays, letters, etc., and also re-prompt to adjust details.

#4. Poetry

Write a short poem describing a possible AI apocalypse.

Want a poem or a quick jingle? Ask Bard!

#5. Storytelling

Can you think of a funny ending to the famous Hollywood movie, the Matrix, where a mouse cuts the power cable of the main computer and all the machines go dark and helpless? This gives time for the Neo to do the same to the main computer and destroy the emergency backup, leading to the ultimate human victory.

Whether it is for English class or preparing a story for your band for digital marketing, if you are facing writer’s block – try Bard out for size.

#6. Elementary Math

Solve: 3x^2 + 2x - 5 = 0

Yes, fire a sum and get the answer! In fact, there are many AI-based mathematics platforms also available for students of all grades. But it is much simpler to ask Bard, right? 😉

So, there are many things you can do with Google Bard. However, if you want a more comprehensive approach, try using two AI tools together, though with AI, two heads aren’t necessarily better than one. Here’s a quick comparison of Google Bard vs. ChatGPT based on their prompt output.

AI Power with a Pinch of Salt!

This was just a glimpse of what Bard can do. You can get creative and try anything and everything; just remember not to enter sensitive details and be wary of the possibilities of AI hallucination.

But we should know it doesn’t have data of its own. Instead, this simply aggregates a few Google search results without any regard for their accuracy. Finally, the onus is on the user to cross-check its output since it can be grossly inaccurate.

And just so you know, Bard isn’t alone. If you’re interested, let me show you its most potent competitor, ChatGPT, which is the reason why it all started in the first place.

Next up, learn how ChatGPT and Bard can empower parents to teach a child.