You Can Now Connect Bard to Gmail, Google Docs, YouTube, and More.
Google today announced Bard Extensions , a new feature that lets you connect Bard to your Google services. Think of them as ChatGPT plugins , if those plugins are proprietary and connected to OpenAI services. Bard extensions allow you to connect Bard to services like Gmail, Drive, Docs, YouTube, and more so you can access them without even leaving your conversation with the AI.
How Google Bard extensions work
Imagine you’re planning a vacation and use Bard to do a little research. In addition to the general Internet searches that Bard can perform to provide you with information about a destination, it can show you relevant YouTube videos with sightseeing ideas, connect to Google Flights to find you the best deals on airline tickets, or Google Hotels to recommend accommodation. If you’re planning a trip with other people, you can ask Bard to coordinate with those Gmail friends to find your ideal travel dates.
Google offers another useful scenario: If you’re applying for a job, you can ask Bard to dig through your Google Docs library, find a specific resume, and write a personal statement based on its contents. (I suppose you could expand on this to create a full cover letter based on your resume and job description, but perhaps Google felt it was a little unethical to push that idea.)
Since Bard is a Google product, integrating Google services directly into conversations makes a lot of sense. In theory, this could push Bard to become the most useful of the current artificial intelligence chatbots .
Are Bard extensions safe?
Google definitely wants you to think so. The company says that any information about your workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive) associated with extensions is never visible to reviewers and is not used to serve you ads or train Bard’s AI model. It is also deleted whenever it is used to satisfy your request, so if you are, for example, asking for a summary of emails received from a client, it will not delete that data until you are done with it. this request.
However, according to Google , the service will share the following data with the extensions you use: information from your conversation, preferences such as language and device type, and location information. This means you should feel secure in the knowledge that no one is clearing your Google Docs or Gmail files when you connect to Bard, but everything you discuss with Bard is collected.
Extensions only work if you have enabled Bard Activity . This option retains the data you’ve accumulated while using Bard for 18 months by default (though you can set it to automatically delete for anywhere from three to 36 months). However, any human-verified data is retained for up to three years. Disabling Bard Activity is the only way to prevent Google from storing this data. However, this means you won’t be able to use your extensions either.
How to set up Google Bard extensions
To get started with Bard extensions, go to bard.google.com/extensions . Sign in to your compatible Google account. In this window you will see all the extensions that Bard currently supports: Google Flights, Google Hotels, Google Maps, Google Workspace (Gmail, Drive and Docs), and YouTube. Click the switch next to each extension you want to give the Bard access to. You can return to this page to revoke access at any time.
Whenever you send a request to Bard that requires one of these extensions, you will see it appear in the chat as the bot loads content. For example, request a video about Portugal, and you’ll see the YouTube logo when Bard generates a response. Ask when the cheapest flights to Denver are and you’ll see “Google Flights.”
In other Bard news
Google also announced two new features along with the extensions: the first allows you to press the “G” button on any Bard results to prompt the bot to double-check its answers. If the Bard finds additional supporting evidence, he will highlight it in green. If it finds conflicting information, it will highlight it in orange.
You can also share Bard chats with other people, who can then pick up where you left off. For example, if you start a chat with Bard about the history of Rome, you can send it to your friend who thinks about the Roman Empire daily to keep the conversation going.