Google LLC will start making its Bard artificial intelligence chatbot available for users in the U.S. and U.K, the company announced today.

Users can sign up for a waitlist to access Bard on a new dedicated webpage the search giant has created. According to The Verge, Google expects that the process of rolling out the service more broadly will be “slow.” The company has not yet specified when it plans to make Bard generally available.

On launch, Bard enables users to ask only a limited number of questions per chat session but doesn’t cap how many chat sessions can be launched. In response to a query, the service generates up to three different responses dubbed drafts. Below the drafts, Bard displays a “Google it” button that opens Google’s search engine in a new tab.

Bard is reportedly faster than the rival chatbot in Microsoft Corp.’s Bing search engine. It’s believed the faster response times may stem from the fact that Bard currently has fewer users. Moreover, it’s possible that the chatbot’s performance is partly the result of the way the underlying large language model is implemented.

When SiliconANGLE asked Bard how it’s better than ChatGPT, it appeared ready with a rather complete answer, though as the service says multiple times, its answers may not be correct:

• More up-to-date information: Bard is constantly being updated with new information from the real world, while ChatGPT’s information is limited to what was available at the time it was trained.

• More comprehensive knowledge base: Bard has a wider range of knowledge than ChatGPT, including information on a variety of topics such as science, history, and current events.

• More accurate answers: Bard is more likely to give accurate answers to questions than ChatGPT, due to its larger knowledge base and more up-to-date information.

• More creative: Bard is able to generate more creative content, such as poems, code, and scripts, than ChatGPT.

• More user-friendly: Bard is easier to use than ChatGPT, due to its more intuitive interface.

Asked to provide bios of a couple of SiliconANGLE writers, Bard demurred, replying: “I do not have enough information about that person to help with your request,” despite abundant information on Google itself. However, unlike ChatGPT, it did not provide several erroneous facts about one writer.

Bard is powered by a large language model called LaMDA that Google first debuted in 2021. Last month, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai detailed that Bard will initially be powered by a lightweight version of Bard optimized for hardware efficiency. The version’s reduced hardware requirements will make it easier for Google to make it broadly available, Pichai explained. Bard will be updated with “newer, more capable models over time,” Google vice presidents Sissie Hsiao and Eli Collins elaborated in a blog post today.

Google plans to enhance Bard in other ways as well. The search giant intends to equip the chatbot with support for more languages, the ability to generate software code and unspecified multimodal features. A multimodal AI model is a neural network that can process not only text but also other types of data such as images and videos.

“You can use Bard to boost your productivity, accelerate your ideas and fuel your curiosity,” Hsiao and Collins wrote today. “You might ask Bard to give you tips to reach your goal of reading more books this year, explain quantum physics in simple terms or spark your creativity by outlining a blog post. We’ve learned a lot so far by testing Bard, and the next critical step in improving it is to get feedback from more people.”

In parallel with the rollout of Bard, Google is integrating large language models into other components of its product portfolio.

Last week, the company announced plans to make several new generative AI features available in its Workspace productivity suite. The features will help users draft emails, analyze data in spreadsheets and create presentations.

Google is also bringing generative AI technology to its cloud platform. The company will make several large language models available through Vertex AI, its suite of cloud services for building and deploying neural networks. The models are rolling out alongside Generative AI App Builder, a new tool that will make it easier for customers to build machine learning applications.

With reporting from Robert Hof

Image: Google