Google announces ChatGPT rival Bard’s testing phase and new updates

Google has announced new updates across its platforms, celebrating the 25th anniversary of its search engine in an event held in Paris on Wednesday.

Starting with language translation, the firm has now added 24+ new languages, which reach more than 300 million people around the world. According to the firm, the 'translate' feature is now being used by over one billion people.

Google Lens has 10 billion-plus offers per month. And the tech gaint has now launched a feature to translate the whole picture, helping it to translate 'text into context.' The feature will be immediately rolled out to all existing android users.

Google will also enable its Android users with its Screen Search option, which allows them to search for any information or video, or image they might have open on any other app.

The firm is also expanding the rollout of its multi-search option that allows users to fix multiple points of interest while looking up specific information.

The feature is now live for all users and will be rolled out in all languages. The company said that the multi-search option will soon work with any image.

Google's Bard, AI-powered tool to remain in testing

Talking about its recently announced AI service Bard, the firm said it is powered by a lightweight model version of LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications).

According to Google, being a smaller model, it requires less computing power, thereby permitting the developers to scale to more users, resulting in more feedback.

The platform will be available only to "trusted testers" before it is made widely available to the public later on.

The tool can explain discoveries from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to a nine-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills, the company explained.

Updates to Google Maps announced

Google Maps will now have more augmented reality features powered by its AI tools. A new feature now enables people to point their phone camera at a shop and see its reviews popping up on the screen.

The firm also announced that the Immersive View in Google Maps, which relies on AI, will be rolled out today in the cities of Los Angeles and London.

In addition, its Indoor Live View feature is now extended to several new cities and 1000+ venues. Google Maps will also offer a feature to aid electric vehicle users in getting directions that include charging facilities while planning suitable routes.

With the updates, Google hopes to gain lost footing in the AI space with tight competition from the likes of OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's newly AI-enabled Bing platform.