Google’s generative AI, Bard, still has a long way to go before it reaches the same level as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but the company is working on improving its capability. In a blog post on Friday, Google announced that Bard can now help users with programming and software development tasks, a feature it says is “one of the top requests we’ve received from users.”
Bard can now generate, debug, and explain codes in over 20 programming languages, including C++, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python and Typescript. Users can export Python codes directly from Bard to Google Colab, and the generative AI can also help write formulas for Google Sheets.
For beginners in coding, Bard will come useful with its ability to explain code snippets. Bard is still imperfect and can still generate codes with different functions from what it was commanded or not debug properly, but Google says this can be fixed by just telling it, “This code didn’t work, please fix it.”
Bard can also help users optimize their codes by making them faster or more efficient. After the initial output, users can respond to Bard with “Could you please make that code faster?” or “Find error handling clauses you might have missed.”
Google advises double-checking Bard’s responses and reviewing the code for errors and vulnerabilities because it is still an early experiment requiring much work.
Despite still being a work in progress, Bard can help users with everyday tasks, including drafting replies in Gmail and making presentations. Google recently released an experiment updates page where anyone can see the latest changes to Bard.
