When Google launched Bard in February last year, many people 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 kicked out by the Internet. However, over time, Bard has improved the quality of its responses and has also launched several new features over the past few months.
And now, reports have emerged that Google is working on an even more advanced version of Bard to run on its latest model, Gemini. And this version of Bard will not be free for users.
Reports say that Google is working on an upgraded version of Bard, which is expected to offer advanced features through its paid subscription Google One. This enhanced version, known as “Bard Advanced”, 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 oversaw the new version, Bard Advanced will be available through Google One as part of a paid subscription. Users can also enjoy a three-month free trial period. Although the feature is still in development, it is expected to allow users to explore a variety of topics and take advantage of Bard’s advanced capabilities, including advanced math and logic skills.
Furthermore, Roussel discovered additional updates and shared screenshots revealing the feature codenamed Motoko. This feature has the ability to enable users to create their own custom bots. It is unclear whether users will have the ability to share these bots or whether there will be a cost associated with accessing this feature. In a similar move last year, OpenAI announced that GPT Plus customers will have the ability to create and share custom bots.
Meanwhile, developer Bedros Pamboukian also said that Google is working at an “advanced” level, which shows the company’s commitment to providing more sophisticated AI experiences.
Earlier, Google introduced its larger 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 up to 60 requests per minute for app development needs.
In the coming months, Google plans to launch Gemini Ultra, its most capable model designed for highly complex tasks. The company aims to further improve the model and conduct security testing by incorporating feedback from partners.
Bard, in November last year, came into limelight for getting a feature that could prove to be extremely useful for people who work with video content on a regular basis.
In a blog post, Google announced that it is improving Bard’s ability to understand and analyze YouTube videos.
In their blog titled “Expanding Bard’s understanding of YouTube videos”, the tech giant said they are taking the “first steps” in the ability for AI chatbots to understand YouTube videos. Giving an example of the same, the blog post mentions that if someone is looking for some cooking recipes online, they can ask the bard about its details.
A report by The Verge says that the feature is currently only available as an opt-in experience. Therefore, it may take some time to become available to 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 summarize more emails at a time, and so on.