Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, has expanded its capabilities to include scanning Gmail, Docs, and Drive to help users find relevant information. With this new integration, Bard can search and summarize emails, as well as highlight important points in documents stored in Drive. These integrations, known as extensions, aim to save users time by eliminating the need to manually search through numerous emails and documents. The feature is currently only available in English.
While there may be concerns about privacy and data usage with regards to giving Bard access to personal emails and documents, Google assures users that it won’t use this information to train Bard’s public model, and it will not be seen by human reviewers. Users also have the option to opt in or disable the integrations with Gmail, Docs, and Drive at any time. To use the feature, users can either have Bard directly search within their Gmail by prefacing their question with “@mail,” or they can simply ask Bard to check their email for specific information.
In addition to Gmail, Docs, and Drive, Bard’s extensions also include Maps, YouTube, and Google Flights. This means users can ask Bard to provide real-time flight information, find nearby attractions, surface YouTube videos on a particular topic, and much more. Google will enable these three extensions by default. Google plans on expanding Bard’s integrations to more products across Google and with external partners in the future.
Google is also making other notable improvements to Bard. One of these is the introduction of a “Google It” button, which allows users to double-check Bard’s answers. This button not only searches for related topics on Google but also shows whether Bard’s answers have been corroborated or contradicted by Google Search. Verified information will be highlighted in green, while unvalidated answers will be highlighted in orange. Users can mouse over the highlighted sentences to gain more context on where Bard may have made mistakes or provided accurate information. Google is also adding the ability to continue a conversation with Bard based on a shared link, allowing users to build on a question someone else has already asked.
Since its launch in February, Google has been steadily adding more features to Bard. These include the ability to generate and debug code and create functions for Google Sheets. Recently, Google added support for Google Lens in Bard, enabling users to brainstorm caption ideas for photos or find more information about them.
Overall, Google’s Bard AI chatbot has enhanced its capabilities by integrating with Gmail, Docs, and Drive, as well as other Google products. These integrations aim to save users time and provide them with relevant information directly from their personal data. With the addition of new features and improvements, Bard continues to evolve and offer a more comprehensive and efficient user experience.