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Google releases Bard to a limited number of users in the US and UK

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Re: Google releases Bard to a limited number of users in the US and UK

#261
post #181

BAH. "This Google Account isn’t supported" "Bard does not currently support Google Workspace accounts or when our systems indicate you may be under 18." Smooth move, Google. PAYING Workspace customers should be the first ones to get access. This blows my mind. Oh wait, no… it doesn't. They did this with other devices and apps too. You couldn't use your Workspace account. You had to use a personal account. Really dumb…

Also I can't switch to a personal account. Only option is to log out of all accounts. Other tabs (gmail, etc) show all accounts and let me switch. Not bard.

I just found that you can append `/u/1/` (or whatever logged-in account id) to the url to switch between them - it's only the GUI that's missing.

Re: Google releases Bard to a limited number of users in the US and UK

#262
post #181

BAH. "This Google Account isn’t supported" "Bard does not currently support Google Workspace accounts or when our systems indicate you may be under 18." Smooth move, Google. PAYING Workspace customers should be the first ones to get access. This blows my mind. Oh wait, no… it doesn't. They did this with other devices and apps too. You couldn't use your Workspace account. You had to use a personal account. Really dumb…

I think the "Workspace" rule is just a simple check if it's a company account and I think it's the right choice to disable access for employees unless strictly authorized by Workspace manager.... and that feature probably does not exist yet for Workspace admins.

Re: Google releases Bard to a limited number of users in the US and UK

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It generated some (incorrect) code for me. Just ask!

Sure, but I'd like it to be half-decent. I haven't gotten off the waitlist. How bad was it?

Only had 10 mins so far, but I think it's useless.

Re: Google releases Bard to a limited number of users in the US and UK

#265
post #53
post #6

Overall very underwhelming... not even really a compelling landing page. Can't write code, can't understand any language besides english. If this is really the best they've got after months of 'code red' to catch up, they really seem to be in trouble.

Hmm. This is not correct. Bard can write code.

I tried and it was pretty awful.

This is the prompt I use, for which ChatGPT outputs a perfect program [0] on the first try (and can even convert it to use material-ui, with some prodding):

> Write a react program that I can paste into a codesandbox. It should display a counter that increases by one every second. Below the counter is a button, and when I press it, it decreases the counter by two. If pressing the button would result in the counter decreasing below zero, the button should be disabled.

Bard refuses to attempt it. It did attempt it for one variation of the prompt, but it used class components with an invalid render function and no timer; it looked like it was just pasting something from the first StackOverflow answer from a Google search of the prompt.

To be fair, Google isn't claiming to support this yet. But I'm just replying to the comment saying it can write code.

[0] https://codesandbox.io/s/prod-haze-c28sec

Re: Google releases Bard to a limited number of users in the US and UK

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the mainstream ads far more offensive than the ones that are accurately targeted towards me.

Hint: the alternatives don't involve ads.

YouTube has a paid option and even here on HN, the mecca of anti-ad sentiment, people openly admit to using ad blockers there instead even though that means the creators they're watching do not get paid.

Hint: People are cheap. They want free stuff, not paid alternatives.

Re: Google releases Bard to a limited number of users in the US and UK

#267

I just got off the waitlist. Quick impression: it's not as good as ChatGPT. I gave it the false belief test (Alice and Bob are playing, Bob leaves, Alice hides his toy, Bob comes back, where does he look for his toy?), which it both passed and recognized as the false belief test. I then asked it to write a React program that ChatGPT has no problem with, and it hallucinated some incorrect code before eventually tellin…

>eventually telling me it "can't do that."

That might be a good sign though, if they can eventually come up with something similarly accurate to chatGPT that knows how to say "I don't know" then that would be a big deal.

Re: Google releases Bard to a limited number of users in the US and UK

#268

I just got off the waitlist. Quick impression: it's not as good as ChatGPT. I gave it the false belief test (Alice and Bob are playing, Bob leaves, Alice hides his toy, Bob comes back, where does he look for his toy?), which it both passed and recognized as the false belief test. I then asked it to write a React program that ChatGPT has no problem with, and it hallucinated some incorrect code before eventually tellin…

>eventually telling me it "can't do that." That might be a good sign though, if they can eventually come up with something similarly accurate to chatGPT that knows how to say "I don't know" then that would be a big deal.

I'm not sure it's so sophisticated. I think it's just recognizing that I'm asking it for code and refusing to help so it doesn't embarrass itself. I wouldn't be surprised if this is basically a hardcoded compatibility check (i.e., not even part of the model itself). I also noticed that this only started after I gave a thumbs down to its first attempt...

Re: Google releases Bard to a limited number of users in the US and UK

#269
post #195

Somehow I have the idea that the general sentiment is that people hope Google fails with Bard. Or at least does something stupid. Is it just me? (Not saying it is a good thing)

Who doesn't enjoy a bit of schadenfreude when it comes to lazy, bloated, arrogant multibillion dollar corporations like Google?

Relative to what? Other corporations that are comparably successful? Some ideal notion of what a corporation can be?

Yes, there are massive problems with most large corporations: being more powerful than most countries, having legal "personhood" in the United States at least, a generally unchecked tendency to acquire competitors, poor unionization, outsized influence via lobbying, poor privacy protections, tax avoidance, gaming local and even national jurisdictions for tax benefits, profiting off long-term national R&D without meaningfully giving back to educational or equity initiatives.

I'm not "blaming" them to be clear. These are systemic problems. The world will have to change a lot of fundamental rules and incentives if we want to see significant change. I'm not holding my breath.

It isn't all bad. I just keep telling myself that.

Re: Google releases Bard to a limited number of users in the US and UK

#270
post #242

Ok so I got access to it....and its bad. Really, really bad. I think Siri could likely give better responses than this half arsed pile of junk. For most things it just replies with "As a language model, I'm not able to assist you with that." - even for basic questions. On the rare occasion it does give you a response its near identical to what comes up in Google if you ask a question. You can tell its a knee jerk res…

Not at all my experience, it's alright. And I've seen the as a language model response a lot less than when I use chatgpt
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