Google I/O has revealed a much-needed update for the company’s Bard AI chatbot that will help it take on Microsoft’s Bing AI. Thanks to a collaboration with Adobe, Google Bard will soon be able to generate images from text responses – images that users can then further edit in Adobe Express.
The announcement came during Google’s big I/O event and we’re sure Bard fans are hyped to see the chatbot get a feature boost that should help the quirky bot take on Bing. Bing AI has been able to make images for a while now thanks to its DALL-E integration, so this was the natural next step for Bard.
Google and Adobe will be approaching the new feature using the Content Authenticity Initiative, an open-source Content Credentials technology that will bring transparency to images that are generated through this integration.
The whole thing is made possible through Abobe Firefly, a family of creative generative AI models that will make use of Bard’s conversational AI service to power text-to-image capabilities. Users of all skill levels and experiences will be able to describe their exact vision to Bard, which will then generate images with Firefly.
The images will be created within Bard, so rather than using the chatbot to help you come up with prompts, then hopping over to Midjourney or DALL-E to produce images, Bard users will now be able to fine-tune prompts and generate artwork all in one place.
Too little, too late?
The fact that Google has taken the route of AI-image generation for Bard’s newest, big update shows that the company is clearly working hard to stay ahead of the AI race, given their mediocre launch and reception so far. AI-image generation is a point of contention for many reasons in terms of real-world application, with artists having their work stolen to train bots or be recreated by models like Midjourney and DALL-E.
The rise in this kind of image generation also forces us to challenge what we consider art and what makes an artist. However, Google seems to be taking a neutral route here, and by tagging posts generated by Bard as such, it’ll hopefully curb any of these possible negative outcomes.
Adobe and Google do feel like an unlikely pairing and it is a bold move on Google’s part to incorporate Adobe Firefly, an image generator that is still in beta. That being said, the highly popular generative AI Midjourney is also still in beta, so we can’t say it’s a bad move.
When we’re talking about the best AI art generator, there’s a general consensus that Bing AI’s DALL-E 2-powered option takes the cake – we had a quick look, and our fellow tech-heads over at ZDNet agree. Midjourney of course is a close second and still holds the top spot for a lot of creators, but this does mean that Google will have to put in the work to compete.
Google Bard had a rocky start upon release and has a lot to prove if it wants to compete with Bing Chat. Microsoft has had a lot more time to build up a solid user base – and it’ll take a lot to bring Bard up to the same position.