Don’t get it twisted. Most Google products you use, from Gmail, Doc, to Meet, etc., are AI driven, however, Bard is such a platform that grants you collaborative prowess with generative AI.

Blogging on this in line with Google IO 2023, Sissie Hsiao, Vice President and GM, Assistant and Bard at Google, said she was impressed with the creative and imaginative ways people interacted with it.

I, for one, have gotten some really fun ideas to help teach my 7-year old fractions!”, she wrote. “Since we rolled out Bard — initially in the U.S. and the U.K. — we’ve gotten quite a bit of feedback and have adapted quickly to make your experience with it even better. We recently moved Bard to PaLM 2, a far more capable large language model, which has enabled many of our recent improvements — including advanced math and reasoning skills and coding capabilities. In the past few weeks, coding has already become one of the most popular things people do with Bard”. 

– Hsiao

To Hsiao, this early momentum is just the beginning as Google introduced new ways for you to collaborate with Bard.

Bringing Bard to more people

“As we continue to make additional improvements and introduce new features, we want to get Bard into more people’s hands so they can try it out and share their feedback with us. So today we’re removing the waitlist and opening up Bard to over 180 countries and territories – with more coming soon”, she continued.

“Not just that: Bard is now available in Japanese and Korean, and we’re on track to support 40 languages soon. As we’ve said from the beginning, large language models are still a nascent technology with known limitations. So as we further expand, we’ll continue to maintain our high standards for quality and local nuances while also ensuring we adhere to our AI Principles. 

Making your interactions with Bard more visual 

“Coming soon, Bard will become more visual both in its responses and your prompts. You’ll be able to ask it things like, “What are some must-see sights in New Orleans?” — and in addition to text, you’ll get a helpful response along with rich visuals to give you a much better sense of what you’re exploring”.

“You’ll also be able to include images — alongside text — in your own prompts, allowing you to boost your imagination and creativity in completely new ways. To make this happen, we’re bringing the power of Google Lens right into Bard. Let’s say you want to have some fun using a photo of your dogs. You can upload it and prompt Bard to “write a funny caption about these two.” Using Google Lens, Bard will analyze the photo, detect the dogs’ breeds, and draft a few creative captions — all within seconds.

Introducing coding upgrades and export features 

Hsiao added the imperative that they build Bard alongside people, because feedback is key to making it better.

As part of that effort, Google’s team is incorporating developers’ feedback into a few key coding upgrades, including the following as explained by Hsiao:

• Source citations: Starting next week, we’ll make citations even more precise. If Bard brings in a block of code or cites other content, just click the annotation and Bard will underline those parts of the response and link to the source. 
• Today we’re launching Dark theme, which is another feature developers have asked for — and one we think will help make interacting with Bard a lot easier on your eyes.
• We’ve heard that developers love the export to Colab feature, so coming soon, we’re adding the ability to export and run code with our partner Replit, starting with Python.

And since people often ask Bard for a head start drafting emails and documents, at Google IO 2023 two more Export Actions were launched, making it easy to move Bard’s responses right into Gmail and Docs.

For example, let’s say — like me — you’re a die-hard pickleball fan. You can ask Bard to write an email invitation for your new pickleball league, summarizing the rules of the game and highlighting its inclusivity of all ages and levels. Just click the “draft in Gmail” button so you can make those final tweaks before getting your pickleball league off the ground. 

Connecting Bard with the services you love  

“Looking ahead, we’ll introduce new ways to fuel your imagination and curiosity by integrating the capabilities of Google apps and services you may already use — Docs, Drive, Gmail and others — right into the Bard experience. And of course, you’ll always be in control of your privacy settings when deciding how you want to use these tools and extensions. 

“Bard will also be able to tap into all kinds of services from across the web, with extensions from outside partners, to let you do things never before possible. In the coming months, we’ll integrate Adobe Firefly, Adobe’s family of creative generative AI models, into Bard so you can easily and quickly turn your own creative ideas into high-quality images, which you can then edit further or add to your designs in Adobe Express. 

“Let’s say I’m planning a birthday party for my 7-year-old who loves unicorns, and I want a fun image to send out with the invitations. All I have to do is ask Bard: “Make an image of a unicorn and a cake at a kids’ party” — and it’ll generate an image within seconds, all while adhering to Adobe’s high standards for quality and ethical responsibility. 

We want Bard to be a home for your creativity, productivity and curiosity — so we’re working to connect Bard with helpful Google apps and many more partners, including Kayak, OpenTable, ZipRecruiter, Instacart, Wolfram and Khan Academy.

– Hsiao

“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. When we combine human imagination with Bard’s generative AI capabilities, the possibilities are boundless. We can’t wait to see what you create with it,” Hsiao concludes.

Now, you can collaborate with AI. Google has been embedding the power of generative AI across all the Workspace apps.

These features help you write, help you organize, help you visualize, help you accelerate workflows, have richer meetings and much more.

This powerful new way of working is what we’re calling Duet AI for Google Workspace. 

Aparna Pappu, Vice President and General Manager, Google Workspace, in a blog post, said, “this builds on the vision for Workspace we shared in March and the launch of generative AI features in Gmail and Google Docs to trusted testers. We’ve been thrilled to see how people have started using these tools to help them get things done at work and in their personal lives — including client outreach emails, job applications, project plans, and so much more. Helping people write better is something we’ve been working on for years — our AI-powered grammar, spell check, smart compose and reply have helped people write over 180 billion times in the last year alone”. 

Helping you write, even on the go 

Duet AI already works behind the scenes in Workspace to help you write — whether it’s refining existing work or helping you get started in both Gmail and Docs.

“Now we’re bringing this experience to Gmail mobile — imagine being on your phone and having the ability to draft complete responses with just a few words as a prompt. Our initial launch of mobile will be fast-followed by contextual assistance — allowing you to create professional replies that automatically fill in names and other relevant information. 

Creating original images from text, right within Google Slides 

“A picture is worth a thousand words, but until now, creating unique and compelling visuals for presentations has been a manual and time-consuming process.

“We’re embedding Duet AI into Slides so you can easily generate images with a few words — the real power of these image models is that they can visualize something that has never existed. Perhaps you’re a marketer doing early concept brainstorming with your creative agency on a light-hearted campaign to get Parisians to go on safari and want to provide clear visual input early in the process to prevent wasted work later on. Now, you can generate an original visual that conveys your unique artistic vision, all from a simple prompt.

Turning ideas into action and data into insights with Google Sheets 

Duet AI is here to help you analyze and act on your data in Sheets faster than ever before with automated data classification and the creation of custom plans. 

Classification tools understand the context of data in a cell, and can assign a label to it, helping eliminate the burden of manual data entry. Whether you’re a product development team analyzing the sentiment of user feedback, or an HR recruiter summarizing input from interviews, this saves time and toil in developing a clear and visually engaging analysis. 

“Our new help me organize capability in Sheets automatically creates custom plans for tasks, projects, or any activity that you want to track or manage — simply describe what you’re trying to accomplish, and Sheets generates a plan that helps you get organized. Whether you’re an event team planning an annual sales conference or a manager coordinating a team offsite, Duet AI helps you create organized plans with tools that give you a running start.

Fostering more meaningful connections in Google Meet 

“We’re weaving Duet AI into Meet and introducing the ability to generate unique backgrounds for your video calls.

“This helps users express themselves and deepen connections during video calls while protecting the privacy of their surroundings. Imagine a manager celebrating the employee of the month with a visual mashup of their favorite things during a company town hall meeting, or a sales exec jumping on a call with a prospective customer and using a custom background to reflect the customer’s industry or market. It’s a subtle, personal touch to show you care about the people you’re connecting with and what’s important to them. And you can change that visual with an equally stunning and original one — all in just a few clicks”. 

Keeping you in the flow of projects with AI building blocks in Docs 

“Users tell us they love smart canvas because a simple @ mention can save them hours of work by keeping the team focused and collaborating in the document where they’re already working. Now, we’re integrating these capabilities into the new assisted writing experience in Docs. If you’re writing a job description, Duet AI will not only help you write the content, it will also include smart chips for information like location and status, and variables for details you’d want to customize like your company name — helping you go from concept to completion faster without ever leaving your document.

Comments

Adore Me has built our organization in a way that encourages cross-functional, multidisciplinary projects and the ability to write often presents a roadblock, especially with a highly international team.

The ability to quickly create production-worthy copy with generative AI features in Docs and Gmail has been accelerating projects and processes in ways that have even surprised us!” 

– Romain Liot, Chief Operating Officer, Adore Me

Instacart is always looking for opportunities to adopt the latest technological innovations, and by joining this program, we have access to the new features and can discover how generative AI will make an impact for our teams using Google Workspace.” 

– JJ Zhuang, Chief Architect, Instacart 

We’re excited to test out the new generative AI Workspace experiences at Lyft. Whether it be kicking off a plan for a new campaign or drafting an email update to our community of drivers, we’re enthusiastic about how these new tools can help our teams move faster and be more productive.” Lyft 

Keeping customers in control 

“We know that AI is no replacement for the ingenuity, creativity, and smarts of real people. We’re designing our products in accordance with Google’s AI Principles that keep the user in control, letting AI make suggestions that you’re able to accept, edit, and change. We’ll also deliver the corresponding administrative controls so that IT can set the right policies for their organization”, Pappu wrote.

Sign up for Workspace Labs 

“The best way to learn more about AI in Workspace is to use it, which is why we’re excited to open up Workspace Labs to the public and manage the waitlist as we scale to even more users and countries in the weeks ahead”, he added.

Google emphasised its commitment to improving search experiences and ensuring user safety, by introducing new generative AI capabilities for search and implementing advanced tools for online protection.

Significant updates were also announced for Android, Pixel devices, and Google Photos. A standout moment of the conference was the unveiling of PaLM 2, Google’s latest generative language model. This breakthrough model surpasses previous language models in areas such as maths, coding, reasoning, multilingual translation, and natural language generation.

In addition to these advancements, Google reiterated its commitment to responsible AI, striving to address pressing societal challenges like climate change and flood forecasting while maintaining ethical AI practices.

Here are the 15 significant announcements made at Google IO that we thought would be of interest to you:

1. PaLM 2, next generation language model:

Google has unveiled PaLM 2, a next-generation language model designed to improve language translation, reasoning, and coding capabilities. The model is more heavily trained on multilingual text, demonstrating advanced proficiency in logic, common sense reasoning, and mathematics.

Additionally, PaLM 2 was pre-trained on publicly available source code datasets, making it more efficient and faster than previous models. PaLM 2 will be available in four sizes, from smallest to largest: Gecko, Otter, Bison, and Unicorn, making it versatile for a range of use cases.

The model is set to power 25 new Google products and features, including Bard and Med-PaLM 2, a medical competency model that can answer questions and summarise insights from dense medical texts. Learn more about PaLM 2 here.

2. Expansion of Bard:

The waitlist has now been removed, making Bard available in English in over 180 countries and territories, with the addition of Japanese and Korean languages, and planning to support the world’s top 40 languages.

As the platform expands, Google will focus on maintaining high standards for quality, local nuances and adherence to AI principles. More here.

3. Image Capabilities:

Google is making it easier to prompt Bard with images, using Google Lens.  This integration of images with text in Bard aims to enrich the user experience by providing visually informative responses to queries. Users can also include images in their prompts, offering new possibilities for creativity and imagination. More here

4. Developer Features for Bard:

Google is introducing three new ways to use Bard based on developer feedback: Making code citations even more precise by showing you the source of specific blocks of code.

This also applies to citing narrative content from across the web; by adding export to Replit and by making Bard friendlier on the eyes in low-light conditions by introducing Dark theme. More here

5. Export to Docs and Gmail:

Google is making it easier and more seamless for users to continue their work by exporting Bard’s responses to Google Docs or Gmail. Formatting stays intact so users can continue editing directly in Docs or Gmail without needing to copy, paste, and reformat Bard’s responses.

6. Integration into Apps:

Bard will be integrating with various Google apps and services like Docs, Drive, Gmail, Maps, and more, while maintaining user control over privacy settings.

The platform will also connect with external services and partners, such as Adobe Firefly for image creation, Kayak for travel, Instacart for groceries, Wolfram for computational knowledge, and Khan Academy for education, offering a wide range of possibilities for users. More here

7. Integrating generative AI across all the Workspace apps:

The new features help one write, organise, visualise, accelerate workflows, have richer meetings, and much more. This powerful new way of working is what Google calls Duet AI for Workspace.  Google is bringing the generative AI experience to Gmail on mobile and embedding generative AI into Slides so one can easily create unique visuals with a few words. The generative AI will help one analyse and act on data in Sheets, with automated data classification and the creation of custom tables. More here

8. Simplifying Shopping with Generative AI:

Google is using generative AI to make shopping faster and much easier, providing users with a snapshot of noteworthy factors to consider when searching for a product.

Built on Google’s Shopping Graph, this new generative AI shopping experience will offer a seamless and informed decision-making process for users. More here

9. Search Labs:

Google’s advanced generative AI capabilities are now accessible through Search Labs, an innovative platform that allows users to explore and engage with early-stage experiments in Search.

By registering for Search Labs, users have the opportunity to experience the Search Generative Experience (SGE) on Chrome desktop and the Google App in the US (available in English at launch). More here

10. Magic Compose:

This is a new Messages by Google feature powered by generative AI, can help you add an extra spark of personality to your conversations. The feature offers suggested responses based on the context of your messages and can even transform your writing into different styles. Release set for July. More here

11. New AI features in Android:

Google’s upcoming Android 14 update (expected later this year) promises to change the way users personalise their smartphone experience, taking customization to the next level. Material You customization enables users to personalise their lock screen with new shortcuts, clocks, and a monochrome colour theme.

The update also offers diverse wallpaper options, including emoji, cinematic, and generative AI wallpapers that allow users to generate unique designs based on their preferences.

To enhance social media, Google is bringing Night Mode and 10-bit HDR video support to popular social apps like Instagram. The Android 14 update introduces Ultra HDR, promising stunning photo quality and raising the bar for smartphone photography. More here

12. Reimagine Your Photos with Magic Editor in Google Photos

The new experimental editing feature, Magic Editor, powered by generative AI, will enable users to make complex photo edits effortlessly without requiring professional editing skills.

Users can selectively edit specific parts of an image, such as the subject, sky, or background, for more control over the final appearance of their photos. More here

13. Features and Updates to Enhance Online Safety and Trust:

Google’s new suite of features and updates aims to improve online safety and provide users with reliable access to trustworthy content and information.

The “About This Image” tool helps users evaluate the reliability of visual content found online by providing important contextual information, such as when an image was first indexed by Google, its original appearance, and other online occurrences. Google is also expanding its Content Safety API to include potential child sexual abuse material in video content, addressing a critical safety concern as video files account for nearly 50% of all files reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). More here

14. Google’s ongoing efforts to protect Gmail users from unwanted messages, which currently block over 99.9% of spam, phishing, and malware, are now being extended to Google Drive with “Spam View”, a new feature that simplifies the process of separating and reviewing files, allowing users to identify potential spam and stay safe from unwanted or abusive content. Google Drive will automatically classify content into the Spam View, similar to Gmail’s current system, ensuring that users are protected from encountering dangerous or unwanted files. More here

15. Google Pixel

Google’s Pixel product line continues to expand with the introduction of three new devices: the Pixel 7a, Pixel Fold, and Pixel Tablet.

The Pixel 7a is Google’s latest A-series phone, featuring Face Unlock, 8GB RAM, a 90 Hz display, and wireless charging for the first time, making it an affordable package with the best of Google’s hardware and software.

The Pixel Fold is Google’s first foldable phone, boasting a 7.6-inch screen when opened, offering a large, immersive display, and the best camera on a foldable phone, ensuring high-quality photography.

Additionally, the 11-inch Pixel Tablet is designed for entertainment and gaming, comes with a Charging Speaker Dock, and functions as a helpful smart home device. More here