Google is reportedly preparing to rebrand its Bard chatbot as Gemini, according to a leaked changelog. The update reveals a paid "Advanced" tier powered by Gemini Ultra with enhanced multimodal and coding capabilities, alongside a dedicated mobile app. Why it matters: Google is unifying its AI brand to take on ChatGPT Plus directly.
Google just added AI image generation to its Bard chatbot, letting users create pictures for free using its Imagen 2 model. Unlike ChatGPT Plus, which locks DALL-E 3 behind a paid subscription, Bard offers it at no cost, complete with invisible SynthID watermarks. Why it matters: Google is making top-tier image gen accessible to everyone, though image prompts are currently limited to English.
Google looks ready to lock its smartest model behind a paywall. Newly discovered code reveals a "Bard Advanced" tier powered by Gemini Ultra, likely bundled into a paid Google One subscription. The leak also hints at custom bots and prompt-polishing tools designed to take the fight directly to ChatGPT Plus.
Google just announced plans to restrict election-related queries on its generative AI tools, including Bard and SGE, rolling out early next year. The company is also requiring YouTube creators and political campaigns to clearly disclose AI-altered content. Why it matters: Facing a massive global election year, Google would rather pull its AI off the field than risk bot hallucinations swaying voters.
Google just rolled out its new Gemini model to Bard, giving the chatbot its biggest boost yet. English users across 170+ countries can now tap a tuned version of Gemini Pro for text prompts, which Google claims outscores GPT-3.5 on key reasoning benchmarks. Next up: early next year, Bard Advanced will unlock the flagship Gemini Ultra.
Google just upgraded Bard's YouTube extension, allowing the chatbot to analyze individual video content and pull specific details like recipe measurements or step-by-step instructions without you ever hitting play. The opt-in Labs feature saves serious time, but also sparks fresh worries for creators who rely on actual video views and ad impressions.
Google just pushed the release of its flagship AI model Gemini to early 2024, after previously telling cloud customers it would roll out in November. Positioned by DeepMind as its true competitor to GPT-4, the delay shows Google is still having a tough time catching up with OpenAI.
Google is rolling out Bard to teenagers across most countries, adding step-by-step math explanations and chart generation from tables. To protect younger users, the company added content filters for age-sensitive topics and an automatic double-check tool that verifies responses against web results to catch hallucinations.
Google just filed a lawsuit in California against scammers who used Facebook ads to trick users into downloading a fake version of Bard. The download actually delivered malware designed to steal social media credentials. The search giant is aiming to set a legal precedent and block scammers from registering future malicious domains.
Google just added a "respond in real time" setting to Bard, streaming answers line-by-line instead of making you wait for the full response to finish generating. A new "Skip response" button lets you immediately halt unhelpful answers mid-generation. You can toggle between real-time streaming and complete responses in the settings menu.
CCS Insight just forecasted a major reality check for generative AI in 2024 as runaway computing costs and regulatory hurdles replace peak hype. Running these massive models is becoming far too expensive for anyone outside Big Tech. Why it matters: The boom is hitting reality, bringing slower enterprise rollout, search watermarks, and the first deepfake arrests.
OpenAI CTO Mira Murati just revealed that the company was completely unprepared for ChatGPT's viral explosion, noting all preparations became irrelevant within a few hours of launch. While the boom kicked off a global AI arms race, Murati warned that rival tech giants scrambling to ship products risk a dangerous race to the bottom on safety.
Google just unveiled Assistant with Bard, blending its generative AI chatbot directly into its digital helper. It works across voice, text, and images, connects with Gmail and Docs, and features a mobile overlay that sees what is on your screen. It is rolling out to select testers first before launching publicly on Android and iOS.
Google just launched Google-Extended, a tool that lets publishers block their content from training AI models like Bard and Vertex AI while staying visible in Google Search. By adding a simple tag to robots.txt, site owners no longer have to choose between keeping their search traffic or watching their work get scraped for AI models.
Google Search was just caught publicly indexing shared Bard conversation links, exposing users' chat logs on search result pages. An SEO consultant spotted the blunder, prompting Google to confirm the indexing wasn't intentional and that a fix is actively rolling out to block them.
Google just rolled out Bard Extensions, allowing the AI to pull personal context directly from Gmail, Docs, Drive, Maps, and YouTube in a single prompt. Powered by an upgraded PaLM 2 model, the update also adds a double-check button that verifies claims against Google Search. It is currently available in English, with privacy controls to disable workspace access anytime.
Data just highlighted that Microsoft’s $10B AI bet isn't moving the needle, with Bing’s search share stuck at 3% and ChatGPT web traffic visibly shrinking. Unlike historical tech breakthroughs that doubled rapidly through consumer pull, generative AI is struggling to retain everyday users. Why it matters: If real consumer engagement stalls, AI risks behaving more like a passing tech fad than the next smartphone.
Google is overhauling its Assistant to integrate generative AI similar to Bard and ChatGPT, according to an internal email sent Monday. The revamp kicks off on mobile devices alongside an internal reorganization and dozens of layoffs. Why it matters: The classic voice assistant era is ending as Big Tech races to replace scripted bots with actual LLMs.
Thousands of writers just signed an open letter calling out OpenAI, Meta, and other AI developers for training language models on millions of copyrighted works without permission or compensation. The letter demands companies obtain licensing and fairly pay authors for both past and ongoing use, warning that unlicensed scraping threatens creators' livelihoods.
Google just dropped its biggest Bard update yet, expanding the AI chatbot across Europe and Brazil with support for over 40 languages, including Chinese and Spanish. Users can now upload images alongside prompts using Google Lens, listen to spoken responses, adjust reply styles, and export code directly to Replit.
