Earlier this year, Google launched its user-facing generative AI "experiment" - Bard. Driven by advanced machine learning, Bard is a collaborative tool designed to help solve problems and make suggestions. In the early phase, it was rolled out across the US and UK, with Google inviting user feedback to help tweak and improve the model.
Following the success of that campaign, Google is now thinking bigger - opening up the next generation of Bard to over 180 countries and territories to ensure a wider audience for its upgraded functionality.
The Bard upgrade comes as Google expands its AI capabilities even further with the launch of a new tool, Duet AI for Google Workspace. This will embed AI across the ecosystem of Workspace apps, putting it directly into the hands of Google users and assisting them in almost every aspect of their daily work.
Updates to Bard
One of the most exciting refinements to Bard is the addition of images. The tool can now add relevant images to answers, so if someone asks: "What are some of the most popular dog breeds?", they'll see images of dogs alongside the text.
And it works in reverse, too - users can now upload their images and ask Bard to provide a caption or identify what's in the photo.
Bard can now also be used to help write emails and documents, making it directly accessible from Gmail and Docs so that you can draft an email to your team about the agenda for their next meeting or brainstorm ideas for a whitepaper on industry trends.
As Bard expands, Google says it will add more options via integrations with third-party apps. In the coming months, the tool will integrate with Adobe, giving it the ability to craft designs as well as text. Other prospective partners include Kayak, OpenTable, and ZipRecruiter.
Announcing the updates, Vice President and General Manager of Google Assistant and Bard Sissie Hsiao said: "There's a lot ahead for Bard — connecting tools from Google and amazing services across the web, to help you do and create anything you can imagine, through a fluid collaboration with our most capable large language models."
Introducing Duet
The newest addition to Google's AI toolkit is Duet. This AI-powered writing and editing tool works behind the scenes to save users time and frustration when drafting text. It can offer suggestions when struggling with writer's block, correct grammar and spelling mistakes, proofread your work, and draft templates for routine documents such as meeting agendas or event invites.
Duet isn't just confined to Workspace either. It recently launched on Google mobile so remote employees can use the tool on the go and from their personal devices - creating professional replies to their office emails within seconds.
Need an eye-catching presentation in a hurry? Duet can help. The tool doesn't just create text. It can also generate images for quick and easy projects in Google Slides.
It also works in Sheets to provide advanced analytics of large volumes of data in seconds. Create custom plans for tasks and projects to stay organized across multiple activities, and use Duet to categorize your data so you can skip the time-consuming and laborious manual entry process.
In Meet, Duet provides unique backdrops for video conferencing so managers can display photos of team activities or generate a slideshow of new products in meetings with clients.
Duet is currently being rolled out incrementally to selected Google testers via its development sandbox, Workspace Labs. Eager users can sign up to Workspace Labs and help shape the software as it readies for launch, but other Workspace clients will have to wait for now.
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