Microsoft recently retired the Bing Chat brand name for its generative AI chatbot, opting for the name Pilot. However, Google has maintained the Bard name for its competing chatbot, at least for the time being. In the past week, Google introduced several new features to Bard, including the ability to engage in discussions about specific content from YouTube videos.
This new feature is an update to Google’s Bard Extensions launched in September, enabling Bard to integrate with various Google apps and services, including YouTube, to extract information for conversations. The latest update brings additional functionalities tailored specifically to YouTube.
In the official Bard update page, It states:
We’re taking the first steps in Bard’s ability to understand YouTube videos. For example, if you’re looking for videos on how to make olive oil cake, you can now also ask how many eggs the recipe in the first video requires.
We’ve heard you want deeper engagement with YouTube videos. So we’re expanding the YouTube Extension to understand some video content so you can have a richer conversation with Bard about it.
Alongside these YouTube-related enhancements, Google added other features to Bard last week. These include incorporating new “step-by-step explanations” for solving mathematical equations. Another noteworthy addition is Bard’s capacity to generate charts, either from user-inputted data or tables created during a conversation.
Moreover, Google reduced the minimum age requirement for Bard usage to 13 years old in certain countries. Notably, the company announced its intention to take action against two cybercriminal groups exploiting the Bard name for fraudulent activities. These actions include misleading individuals into downloading Bard under the false pretense of malware distribution.
