Google’s Bard chatbot can now help with programming tasks. The tech giant said programming was one of the top requests from its users, and now it’s giving Bard the ability to generate, debug, and explain code. Bard can write in 20 programming languages, including C++, Java, JavaScript, and Python. It also has integration with other Google products and can export code to Colab—the company’s cloud-based Python note-taking environment—as well as help users write functions for Sheets.
See also: Google asks employees to help train Bard
In addition to its ability to generate code, Bard can now provide explanations for code snippets. This could be especially useful for those just starting out in programming, as it will show them why a particular block has the output it does. Additionally, Bard can help you debug code that isn't working as expected.
See also: Google Bard now has an “experiment updates” page
Google admits that at this point, Bard may emit code that “doesn’t produce the expected output” or code that is incomplete. The tech giant advises that you review and test its responses first. In fact, Bard can debug its own output if you find that it returns an error — just type “this code didn’t work, please fix it.” Finally, if you’re not a programming novice but still need help, you can ask the chatbot to optimize your code by making it faster or more efficient.
The tech giant opened up access to its AI chatbot in March, though it still has a long way to go to reach the popularity that ChatGPT enjoys today . What’s more, ChatGPT has the ability to write and improve existing code in multiple programming languages, so updating Google Bard with this capability is probably inevitable. Google is constantly improving BART in other ways, and a few days ago it introduced upgrades based on a new language model called PaLM. The company also created an “experiment updates” page, where you can see all the changes that BART has undergone , as it adds even more features and makes bug fixes .
Information source: engadget.com
