Google Bard is here. Catch up on everything you need to know about the ChatGPT alternative.

Google opened its Bard AI chatbot to public users this week.

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Google debuted its AI chatbot Bard this week with a nod to the unpredictability of AI chatbot responses.
Bard works like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Bing chatbot, but can give multiple responses to a prompt.
Here's how users have reacted so far, and what it all could mean for Google's place in the AI wars.

When Google rolled out its new AI chatbot Bard to the public this week, it had the advantage of learning from reactions to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's new Bing chatbot.

Users experimenting with ChatGPT and Bing have in recent months detailed their weird interactions with the AI chatbots, which can project sentience with their conversational responses but are often just delivering data while predicting what words to say to make sense.

The Bard experience seems conscious of it. If you've gotten through the waitlist to use it, you were likely greeted right away by the message that "Bard may give inaccurate or inappropriate responses," and that it will get better as users engage with it and flag issues.

A brief test of Bard showed it handling Insider's solar system trivia questions with ease, and making cautious predictions about the March Madness basketball tournament ("Houston is the favorite to win the national championship. They have a strong team with a lot of experience," Bard said.)

But it balked at getting personal. Although Bard access is granted through a user's gmail account, Bard told this reporter it couldn't look at "personal information, including your name."

Google had also moved to reassure users this week that Bard "is not trained on Gmail data," according to a tweet.

Some users sharing their own initial impressions have written that they weren't quite impressed so far. Google seems to have signaled it is taking a patient approach to developing the technology over time.

"While we're at an important inflection point and encouraged by the widespread excitement around generative AI, it's still early days for this technology," James Manyika, Google's SVP of technology and society wrote in a sheet explaining Bard.

Read Insider's coverage so far of Bard: