Google’s Bard Is Now Available In Australia. How Does It Compare To ChatGPT?

Bard is the AI chatbot owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, which was released earlier this year. According to Google, Bard “seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models”.

In its initial announcement of the tool, Google said Bard would be an “experimental conversational” tool. Yet mere months after launching, Google has now expanded Bard’s capabilities, claiming the tool will now have enhanced logic, math and coding capabilities on top of its linguistic skills.

While Bard was only available in the US and the UK, Google has since announced the tool is now available to users in more than 180 countries worldwide, including Australia.

Google is the world’s largest search engine, so it makes sense that its AI tool draws on information already available via the web. This allows Bard to (according to Google) provide high-quality responses through the chatbot function; responses which draw upon the latest, most up-to-date information available.

Bard was initially powered by Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), which the company announced two years ago. LaMDA was trained on dialogue, Google explains, which is how Bard can now engage in free-flowing conversation instead of simply answering a question in the manner that a Google search would.

In its most recent announcement, Google has now introduced its next generation language model–PaLM 2–which will now make Bard into a tool with “improved multilingual, reasoning and coding capabilities”.

It will also add soon a visual element to its chatbot function, in both the responses it provides and the prompts the user enters.

When Forbes Advisor asked ChatGPT about its competitor, Bard, it didn’t have much to give us on the differences between the two AI tools. It did, however, tell us plenty about The Bard–aka Shakespeare.

Related: What Is ChatGPT? A Review Of The AI In Its Own Words

When we asked Bard the differences between itself and ChatGPT, it simply declined to comment.

By fine-tuning our question and asking specifically whether or not Bard is better, the Google AI bot provided a more in-depth (and diplomatic) answer–stating the “best language model will depend on your specific needs and preferences”, and not denying that for some, that means ChatGPT would be “better”.

As Bard is–self admittedly–still under development, here’s the human take on a few of the benefits of Bard compared to ChatGPT, from us here at Forbes Advisor:

More reliable data

Bard’s internet-scraping capability sets it apart from ChatGPT (and potentially other emerging competitors), which use information compiled into a data set that reportedly hasn’t been updated since 2021 in order to create its responses–hence making it more prone to errors.

As you can see, Bard acknowledges this advantage over ChatGPT itself–noting that it is “trained on a larger dataset of text and code”, providing it with a broader knowledge base.

Bard is free

In our question to Bard above, it said that an advantage of ChatGPT is that it is “more affordable, as it is free to use”. However, when you ask Bard directly if it is free to use itself, the answer is an unequivocal yes.

On the other hand, while ChatGPT is technically available for free, it does come with limitations (such as being heavily prone to errors). The paid version–ChatGPT Plus–became available to Australians in February and costs US$20 a month.

Smartphone Integration

Currently, ChatGPT does not have the capabilities to be used on a smartphone, meaning the AI cannot be used on the go. Bard, on the other hand, can be. Users can access Bard through their web browser on their phone, or through the dedicated Bard smartphone app, available on both the App Store and Google Play.

We know now that Bard has many capabilities beyond simply being a chatbot, but does it have the capability to save you money? So far it can code, have a question-and-answer dialogue with humans, and will soon be able to communicate with images.

When we asked Bard how to save money, it gave us the run-down of some essential money-saving tips: create a budget; cut back on unnecessary expenses; set savings goals; invest.

When we asked Bard if it could help us save money, it said it could, by assisting with all the aforementioned tips:

Unfortunately, but also predictably, when Bard was asked “please pay off my debt”, it did not wave a magic wand and make the debt go away. It did offer tips on how to do so.

The same happened when asked “please invest my money”. The chatbot came up with a list of tips, sourced from those available on the internet, about how to invest.

When asked to create a budget, Bard was willing to go the extra mile and add in some calculations.

At first it provided a sample budget, showing the user how to break down their monthly costs. It then also offered to create a more tailored budget to the specific user, if the user provided their monthly salary, expenses and financial goals. The answer to these questions is still up to you, but Bard could save you from having to do the math. It also, of course, suggested plenty of budgeting tips. (However, we do not advocate taking Bard’s, or any chatbot’s, numbers at face value. Double-check any answer it provides when it comes to actual budgeting decisions.)

So can Bard save you money?

Ultimately, Google’s AI chatbot can do many things, but when it comes to growing your bank balance, the onus is still on the user: Bard can’t suddenly invest your funds, much less pay off your uni debt.