Google has updated its Bard AI chatbot to assist engineers in writing and debugging code.
Competitors such as ChatGPT and Bing AI have allowed code creation, but Google claims it has been “one of the top requests” since opening up access to Bard last month.
Bard can now generate code, debug existing code, explain sections of code, and even develop Google Sheets functions.
“We’re launching these capabilities in more than 20 programming languages including C++, Go, Java, Javascript, Python and Typescript,” Paige Bailey, group product manager at Google Research, writes in a blog post.
In terms of mistakes, Bailey concedes that Bard, like many AI-powered chatbots, “may sometimes provide inaccurate, misleading or false information while presenting it confidently,”
“When it comes to coding, Bard may give you working code that doesn’t produce the expected output, or provide you with code that is not optimal or incomplete,” Bailey adds.
“Always double-check Bard’s responses and carefully test and review code for errors, bugs and vulnerabilities before relying on it.” Bard will also cite the source of its code recommendations if it quotes them “at length.”
Despite allegations that staff regularly criticised the chatbot and labelled it a “pathological liar,” Google is moving forward with its Bard chatbot.
Google has apparently ignored ethical concerns in order to compete with rivals such as OpenAI.