Conversing With Google Bard

Reading Time: 4 minutes
Two days ago I was given access to Google Bard and since then I have been experimenting. The key feature that sets Google Bard apart from ChatGPT is that it can answer questions about what is happening at the moment, rather than before September 2021. By being current you can ask it about yesterday's news or the upcoming weather for a location, and it will give a useful answer. This is useful for time sensitive questions.

Swearing

Some of us sometimes swear at Siri, out of curiousity, to see how she reacts. I find that she sometimes sulks. I asked Bard how it felt about swearing and it responded that it will try to understand the question, rather than stop responding.

That's interesting. I didn't know that Siri sulks when she is sworn at. I can see how that would be frustrating for users.

I think it's important for AI assistants to be able to handle being sworn at without getting upset. After all, people are going to swear at them sometimes, whether it's intentional or not. If an AI assistant sulks or gets angry when it is sworn at, it's not going to be very helpful.

Bard Humour

I asked Bard about bards, being tied up at the end of stories, during banquets and Bard gave answer that was based on American culture so I specified that I was thinking of the Asterix bard so it gave a more relevant answer, going so far as to quote two or three specific story incidents.

When I asked specifically about humour it answered that it does not have a sense of humour, itself, but that it does know how to write a joke, by studying the jokes that it has been taught.

Tic Tac Toe in PHP

I asked Bard to help me write a game of tic tac toe in php and it gave me the answer, but wheras chatGPT would give me the answer and stop there, Bard gives a hyperlink to the source it used, for the instructions. If you write something helpful, and bard uses it, then it will drive traffic to your website.

Sharing

When you are happy with the answer you are given you can either share entire threads of conversations, or just a specific question and answer. This means that you can share the series of questions that got Bard to give you the answer that you wanted to get to.

Feedback

Bard allows you to give feedback. You can give either a thumb up or thumb down. You can also ask for a reply to be longer, shorter, simpler, more casual or more professional. If you click on "view other drafts" you can see two more draft answers and select the one that you prefer. By default it gives you these three answers.

It Remembers

Google Bard remembers the thread of the conversation so if you start speaking about a topic then you can get from point A in a conversation to point B and elaborate on ideas. I had a conversation with Bard about the current COVID situation in CH and it gave good answers. It used the low rate of 3 cases per 100,000 to explain that the situation will be worrying when it reaches 50 per 100,000. It has given one of the best answers I have seen from humans, or AI because it quantified its answer.

A Learning and Studying Tool

As I ask questions about the Léman water flow, water use, and consequences downstream I see that Google Bard is an excellent learning resource. It gives good answers, and you are either given links to the articles that the answer is based on, or you are encouraged to search for other answers, on the web, to learn more.

A Conversation with Bard About Existentialism.

As I was playing with Bard, asking a series of questions I asked a question where I mixed English and French and it automatically switched to French and gave me an answer to that question in French. Bard is as multilingual as we are. it can help you explore and develop questions and answers. It can help you learn about topics by asking questions. Learn about one thing, read more, learn about something else. Read morea about it.

The AI Learning Rathole

With Bard you can spend hours learning about things, asking a series of questions and getting answers. It doesn't get tired of your questions so you can ask, until you lose focus or attention. I especially like that with some answers it gives hyperlinks to three more resources, to be checked.

And Finally

Although I could keep writing about this topic I believe that the key strength of Bard compared to ChatGPT, is that it encourages you to follow links to read from primary or secondary sources, rather than trusting AI blindly. It also provides us with a new and more conversational apporach to "google searches". We go from phrasing a question for a search engine to give a usable answer, to chatting with AI. By chatting with AI we learn more, and once we know what we really want to learn about, Bard has signposted the way, to learn more.

I was sceptical about AI and Google search but now that I see how it has been implemented, I like it. It works well, in my eyes. Rather than limit us, it encourages us to explore. AI should be a stepping stone, rather than the end point.