Google’s AI Bard is getting a major update. Users will now be able to search through their own documents and emails to better answer queries.
Bard also includes features to prevent information from being incorrect. The feature, “double check”, intends to prevent AI “hallucinations.” Ars Technica reports:
On Tuesday, Google announced updates to its Google Bard AI assistant—its version of ChatGPT—including integration with Google apps (such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Flights) and a feature to double-check Bard’s answers against web content. It also added language support for over 40 languages.
Notably, Bard’s new “double-check button” has been designed to provide a counter against confabulations where Bard produces inaccurate information or makes things up (a concept often called “hallucinations” in the AI field). It’s a public admission that Bard often lacks accuracy and isn’t a dependable factual reference.
Privacy is a major issue with AI and Google, making Bard particularly worrisome for some. Google has taken steps to make the access to documents and emails difficult. The Verge continues:
While giving Bard access to your personal email and documents will raise concerns about privacy and data usage, Google says that it won’t use this information to train Bard’s public model, nor will it be seen by human reviewers. You also don’t have to turn on the integrations with Gmail, Docs, and Drive. Google will ask you to opt in first, and you can disable it at any time.
To use the feature, Jack Krawczyk, the product lead of Bard, tells The Verge you can either have Bard directly search within your Gmail, for example, by prefacing your question with @mail. Or, you could just simply ask, “Check my email for information related to my upcoming flight.”
AI’s area of growth can come from both personal and business applications. Bard’s update can give it an edge over Chat GPT.
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