After giving the Bard chatbot the ability to perform programming tasks, Google is now adding to it the ability to generate, debug, and interpret code.
According to Engadget, Bard can currently write in 20 programming languages, including C++, Java, JavaScript, and Python. It also now features integration with other products and can export code to Colab, the company’s cloud-based notebook environment for Python, as well as help users write flagships for Sheets
In addition to the ability to generate code, Bard can now provide explanations for code snippets. This can be especially useful if the user is just starting to learn to program. In particular, Bard can help users debug code that doesn’t work the way the programmer wants it to.
Google acknowledges at this point that Bard may produce code that “does not produce the expected output” or incomplete code. Google advises users to double-check and test its responses first. In fact, Bard can debug its own output if the user finds it is returning an error, just type “this code doesn’t work, please fix it”. Finally, if you are not a beginner in programming but still need help, you can ask the chatbot to optimize your code by making it faster or more efficient.
The tech giant opened up access to its AI chatbot in March, though it still has a lot of work to do to achieve the same popularity that ChatGPT received. ChatGPT also has the ability to write and improve existing code in a number of programming languages, so Google giving Bard this capability is probably a no-brainer. Google has also continuously improved Bard in other ways and has previously rolled out upgrades supported by a new language model called PaLM. A few days ago, the company created a “test update” page, where users can see all the changes Bard has gone through as it adds even more features and makes bug fixes
