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In response to user demand, Google’s Bard AI chatbot has expanded its capabilities to include software development skills such as generating code, debugging, and code explanation. This update comes after users consistently requested coding assistance, as revealed in a recent blog post by Google Research product lead Paige Bailey.
Bard now supports more than 20 programming languages, including C++, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, and TypeScript. Users can also export Python code to Google Colab and receive help with writing functions for Google Sheets.
With these enhancements, Bard can review and debug source code line by line, allowing developers to seek assistance by simply telling Bard, “this code didn’t work, please fix it.” Bard can also translate code between different programming languages and provide explanations for code snippets, making it a valuable tool for those new to programming.
Although Bard was initially launched as a competitor to ChatGPT and other language models, it was found to be less proficient in Grey Journal’s testing. However, these new skills could help Bard catch up with its peers, at least on paper.
Nevertheless, Bailey cautioned that Bard is still an early experiment and may occasionally provide inaccurate or misleading information despite presenting it confidently. For example, Bard may produce incomplete or unexpected code output. However, Google believes that Bard’s new capabilities can offer valuable ways to write code, create test cases, and update APIs. When quoting from an existing open-source project, Bard will cite the source, according to Bailey’s blog post.
