Every major AI feature announced at Google I/O 2023

In the past, Google typically held onto its AI models until the company was sure they were fully ready to be released to the public. But the rapid growth of ChatGPT caused Google to take a different approach.

After seeing ChatGPT's success, the company rushed to release its own chatbot, Google Bard, way before it was ready to deliver real value to customers. Google CEO Sundar Pichai even called Bard to “a souped-up Civic” compared to other AI models in an interview. 

To make Bard smarter and more capable of performing functions such as coding, math, and logic, Bard was upgraded to a much more capable model — PaLM 2. 

Bard's coding abilities have been significantly improved. It can now help with code debugging, collaborating, and exploring. It has also learned more than 20 coding languages and is automatically doing code citations. 

Bard will be able to function in more languages including Japanese and Korean and is on track for supporting 40 more languages soon. 

Some updates geared to improving user experience include a new Bard dark theme you and a new export feature allowing for chat export into Gmail and Docs. 

Also: ChatGPT vs. Bing AI: Which AI chatbot is better for you?

New visual features are also coming to Bard soon. For example, when you ask a question, your response will be able to include an image, table, or a map. 

Google Lens is also coming to Bard, allowing users to upload photos to Bard and ask prompts regarding the photo. The example in the demo included uploading a photo of dogs and asking for a caption. 

Extensions in Bard will allow it to participate with external partners. Google's Adobe Firefly extension will be arriving to Bard in the next couple of months. Through this collaboration, you users can ask Bard to create any image you'd like and have it generated in the chat.

Other extensions planned to arrive to the platform include Kayak, OpenTable, Instacart, Wolfram and Khan Academy. 

Bard also removed its waitlist, making the chatbot available to over 180 countries across the globe.