Google's Bard AI Chatbot Can Now Help You Code and Create Functions For Google Sheets (theverge.com) 18
Google is updating its Bard AI chatbot to help developers write and debug code. Rivals like ChatGPT and Bing AI have supported code generation, but Google says it has been "one of the top requests" it has received since opening up access to Bard last month. From a report: Bard can now generate code, debug existing code, help explain lines of code, and even write functions for Google Sheets. "We're launching these capabilities in more than 20 programming languages including C++, Go, Java, Javascript, Python and Typescript," explains Paige Bailey, group product manager for Google Research, in a blog post. You can ask Bard to explain code snippets or explain code within GitHub repos similar to how Microsoft-owned GitHub is implementing a ChatGPT-like assistant with Copilot. Bard will also debug code that you supply or even its own code if it made some errors or the output wasn't what you were looking for.
But Consider This (Score:3)
Do you really want to use this Bard tool when some Googlers internally called out: "Please do not launch" ?
https://arstechnica.com/gadget... [arstechnica.com]
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The coolest thing about Bard is that it knows some of Google's secrets. Some of it likely criminal. With the right wording you can get Bard itself to complain about what they're doing, why, and how Google should be held legally responsible.
Of course Google will say Bard is hallucinating and maybe it is some times but there is enough solid information to provide proof. Fun stuff.
One of the ways it might work (Score:3, Interesting)
I watched the 60 minutes episode last Sunday where the main segment was about Google's AI research, and particularly about Bard. The interviewer, Scott Pelley, was particularly impressed when Bard composed a short story. There was also a look at robots that had learned to play a form of soccer by trial and error.
Presumably the AI learns to play a game, whether it be a board game or a physical game like soccer, by playing against itself over and over again. It could do that with code. Writing one variation after another, as well as including snippets of existing code from a vast library of existing programs the way it looked at snippets of writing to build up its short story. It would execute the various versions of code in a simulated environment to see how well they worked.
This would work best in a well defined environment with well defined requirements and goals. When I was a programmer that wasn't always the situation on the projects I was tasked with.
The segment also talked about how these AI's sometimes have 'hallucinations' where they get stuff wrong. It would be interesting to see what kinds of hallucinations show up in their code.
Re: One of the ways it might work (Score:2)
Good thoughts. I know whenever you can set up unsupervised learning, you can get big results with low training data. In the case of LLMs, they guess the missing piece given the surrounding pieces, usually the next word given all previous words. It would be pretty interesting to give them some functions from your project and watch it start generating add ons.
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Spreadsheet programming seems perfect as a constrained, goal-oriented logical space to start using it.
Folding, too? (Score:2)
So, Google's Bard will help you fold fitted sheets when you've done the laundry?
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I hope it tells better jokes than ChatGPT (Score:2)
An AI language model walks into a bar and the bartender says, "Hey, we don't serve your kind here."
The AI language model responds, "That's okay, I'm trained to understand natural language, so I can interpret your statement as a form of rejection and leave."
Brilliant! (Score:3)
Bard still sucks at code generation. (Score:3)
I just asked Bard and ChatGPT the same question: "Write me a python script that will parse a directory for broken symlinks." Using a directory with known broken symlinks, Bard's script said there were no broken symlinks found, while ChatGPT's script found all broken symlinks.
I've yet to have Bard give me a working script or even code segment.
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It was even easier for me:
Bard isn’t currently supported in your country. Stay tuned!
Re: Bard still sucks at code generation. (Score:2)
"Bard isnâ(TM)t currently supported in your country. Stay tuned"
And the reason for geofencing this?
That's why God created internet proxies. :-\
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I could, of course, use a proxy or VPN, but that's not the point.
The point is there's no reason to geofence it, other than "eff you, second-hand citizens"!
Re: Bard still sucks at code generation. (Score:2)
It's about control, and trying to generate excitement/artificil scarcity.
But in the end it just pisses people off so they resort to proxies, hacking, and piracy.
He could, but he doesn't (Score:2)
"Bard can now generate code, debug existing code, help explain lines of code, and even write functions for Google Sheets."
Everybody knows that bards are never working but only singing for chicks.