Google expands 'Bard' AI experiment in Arabic

CAIRO - 13 July 2023: Google announced the launch of its generative AI experiment, 'Bard', in Arabic, marking its largest expansion since the English version was introduced earlier this year in March. Bard is designed to unlock users' creative potential by facilitating idea development, providing diverse perspectives on various topics, and enhancing productivity through simplified content summarization.

 

Powered by Google's advanced language model 'PaLM2', Bard possesses a multilingual understanding of information, enabling it to comprehend questions in 16 Arabic colloquial dialects, including Egyptian, Saudi, and Emirati, and respond in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The interface supports right-to-left script and can handle input combining Arabic with other languages, known as code-switching.

 

Google has also introduced several new features to enhance Bard's accessibility and usefulness. These include the ability to listen to Bard's responses audibly by clicking on the sound icon, saving and organizing previous conversations, sharing Bard's responses through shareable links, exporting Python code to Replit (an integrated development environment), and integrating Google Lens capabilities for image recognition and analysis (currently available in English only). Additionally, users can customize Bard's responses in terms of tone and style, choosing from options such as funny, simple, long, short, professional, or casual (also available in English only).

 

Najeeb Jarrar, Regional Director of Marketing at Google MENA, expressed excitement about offering Arabic speakers the opportunity to engage with Bard, highlighting how the engineering team and linguistic experts worked together to enhance Bard's capabilities, including the support for right-to-left script and understanding different dialects and levels of Arabic language proficiency. Jarrar emphasized Bard's potential to help Arabic speakers worldwide in expanding creativity, learning, and productivity.

 

As part of Google's responsible approach to AI, Jack Krawczyk, Director of Product Management at Google, mentioned the proactive engagement with experts, policymakers, and regulators throughout the expansion process. He emphasized Google's commitment to using its AI Principles as a guide, incorporating user feedback, and taking measures to safeguard privacy and data.