Google’s Bard AI chatbot will now talk and respond to visual cues

Google is adding some new features to its Bard AI chatbot, including the ability for Bard to speak your answers to you and respond to prompts that include images. The chatbot is now available in most parts of the world including the European Union.

In a blog post, Google is pitching Bard’s spoken responses as a helpful way to “pronounce a word correctly or listen to a poem or script.” You will be able to hear spoken responses by entering a prompt and selecting the voice icon. According to Google, spoken responses will be available in more than 40 languages ​​and are live now.

The feature that lets you add images to prompts is something Google first showed off at its I/O conference back in May. In one example, Google suggested that you could use it to ask for help writing a funny caption about a photo of two dogs. Google says the feature is available in English now and is expanding to new languages ​​”soon”.

Google is also introducing a few other new features, including the ability to pin and rename conversations, share responses with your friends, and change the tone and style of responses you get back from Bard.

Google first opened up access to Bard in March, but at the time, it was only available in the US and UK. The company has since been rolling out the chatbot to many more countries, and it now includes “all countries in the EEA (European Economic Area) and Brazil,” explains Google spokeswoman Jennifer Rodstrom. The edge This expansion into Europe is a notable milestone; The company’s planned Bard launch in the European Union was delayed due to privacy concerns.