Google Bard learns Spanish in his latest update, but be very careful with his answers

«Bard may display inaccurate or offensive information that does not represent Google's point of view» we read at the bottom, but we will return to that later. Google Bard has been updated and among its news we have to has learned spanish. In order for us to use it from the European Union, Google has had to improve the privacy section, which is why we have had to wait three months to be able to use the chatbot of the most used search engine company in the world.

All the other languages ​​of the European Community will still have to wait. I have asked Bard what percentage of Americans speak Spanish and he has told me that "According to the 2020 United States Census, 18,5% of the US population speaks Spanish at home. This is equivalent to about 62 million people. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States, after English..” which is undoubtedly the reason why we are the first Europeans to have it in our language.

News from Bard

Below the chat text box is a new section Privacy Policy, and this novelty, together with a privacy help center, is what has allowed this chatbot to land in Europe. OpenAI also had to make changes in this regard, but after it was made available. If they had not done so, the EC threatened to prohibit its use in this territory. We also have an activity page from where we can delete the stored data and schedule an automatic deletion.

Regarding news in the form of functions, there is now a speaker-shaped icon to the right of the answers that allows us to listen to them; There are new ways to display the information, but I have not been able to activate them in Spanish; ability to organize and pin conversations; possibility of exporting the code to services like Google Colab or Replit; Integration with Google Lens; and possibility to share conversations.

Inaccurate, even if you try to correct it

As we explained at the beginning, Bard warns that may display inaccurate information, and that is something that must be taken into account if we are considering using the chatbot as a substitute for search engines. As an example, what happened in the screenshot (I don't know if it can be read well): muspy I was informed this morning that Metalite is releasing a new record in 2024, so I'm asking "when is the next Metalite record coming out?" and he answers me that January 27, 2024. We started badly. It leaves on the 19th.

I ask him about the next F1 race and he says July 31 at the Hungaroring. Since I wasn't sure about it, I let it pass, but I looked at the calendar and no, it's the 23st at the same circuit. So I ask him about something that was clearer to him, about how Alcaraz was yesterday, a game that I saw, and he told me that he lost in the Queens tournament? I correct him, that he played Wimbledon yesterday, and he agrees with me, but he tells me that he lost against Rune, I tell him that he won and then he tells me no, that «Carlos Alcaraz lost to Jannik Sinner in the 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinals 6-3, 6-1, 6-4. Alcaraz made a good effort, but Sinner was too strong.«. Sinner?

improvements are expected

So be careful. The previous test was to compare Bard with ChatGPT, who has limited data as of September 2021. It's a major limitation that prevents you from doing current affairs queries, but Bing and Bard shouldn't have it. The proposals of Microsoft and Google should be able to answer questions such as when a music album is going to come out, but the lack of precision means that we cannot currently trust them; it is worth looking in specialized media.

This will change in the future, but right now what we have are more "brothers-in-law" than anything else. It is relatively worrying to see the authority with which they respond: if we do not master a topic, they can mess us up. But from today they will mess it up for us en español.

Link to Google chatbot.