Google is known to be open source and accessible with its product offerings. Even their AI-powered chatbot, Google Bard, is free to use for anyone who has a Google account, but it looks like the tech giant is all set to break the mould with their upcoming offering, Google Bard Advanced. Much like GPT-4, The new version of Bard is set to be a pay-to-use service with users seemingly requiring a Google One subscription in order to access this new advanced version of the chatbot.
According to internet sleuths, the code behind Google Bard Advanced seems to indicate a 3 month free usage feature, which means all users may be eligible to try the all-new Google Bard Advanced for free for a period of three months, after which, they will be required to pay. If this is true, it is definitely a step up on the likes of GPT-4, which requires you to pay in order to even access the model.
Google announced Bard Advanced alongside the new AI large language model Gemini and an AI hypercomputer from Google Cloud. For those of you who are unaware, Gemini is Google’s most capable model and comes in three sizes – Gemini Ultra, Gemini Nano and Gemini Pro. Out of these, Gemini Ultra is still not available to the public, and it is widely believed that Google Bard Advanced will be powered by this model.
There is still no news as to when Google will be releasing Bard Advanced to the public, but reports suggest that it is currently being tested among a select few users, which is probably why we have this much information in the first place. That said, it will be interesting to see how good Google Bard Advanced will be, compared to the free version, and whether or not, it will be compelling enough to use.
