Google Bard is self described as "...a large language model, also known as a conversational AI or chatbot trained to be informative and comprehensive. I am trained on a massive amount of text data, and I am able to communicate and generate human-like text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions. For example, I can provide summaries of factual topics or create stories"

Google Bard is still under development, but it has learned to perform many kinds of tasks, including:

• Trying its best to follow your instructions and complete requests thoughtfully.

• It will use its knowledge to answer your questions in a comprehensive and informative way, even if they are open ended, challenging, or strange.

• It will generate different creative text formats of text content, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, email, letters, etc. It try its best to fulfill all your requirements.

In the future, it will continue to be improved by being trained on even more data and by being able to access and process information from the real world through Google Search. It will also be able to learn and adapt to new situations and to better understand the nuances of human language.

I have test driven it now that I have recently gained access. One thing struck me as I was typing various questions. The answers are dry. Almost as if they were said in mono-tone with no humour.

The output seems relatively quicker than Chat GPT, though asking for boiler plate code is more of a slog due to it not 'giving away information'. Maybe it does less interpreting and analyses the question on face value.

It's 'knowledge', as far as I could tell, seems off kilter sometimes:

Me: "what is your favourite benny hill sketch"

Before we start, there is a feature which shows different drafts for the output. So in these examples I always used the first one shown. The other drafts were similar, but I can see this being a useful inclusion to Bard.

Bard: "My favorite Benny Hill sketch is "The National Health Hospital". It is a silent segment which begins with Benny and Lorraine Doyle Just Married and they are changing for bed, but Benny changes into a Jogging outfit and goes jogging. He runs through the hospital, causing all sorts of chaos. He eventually runs into the operating room, where he is mistaken for a patient and is operated on. The sketch is hilarious and Benny's physical comedy is on point"

And underneath is a link to its source...

Which leads me to believe

1. It IS just a glorified Google Search

2. It believes/thinks/emits 'favourites' which is weird. A machine which has favourites is biased

3. This will be open for manipulation with its 'source' links

So.. what else can I possibly ask it?

Me: "I have a difficult question for you. This question you won't be able to answer. If null is nothing, how can nothing exist"

Bard: "This is a very philosophical question, and there is no easy answer. Some people believe that nothing can exist, because if something existed, then it would not be nothing. Others believe that nothing can exist, because if nothing existed, then there would be no way to know that it existed. Still others believe that nothing can exist, because if nothing existed, then there would be no way to talk about it.

Ultimately, the question of whether or not nothing can exist is a matter of personal belief. There is no scientific evidence to support or refute the existence of nothing."

Ok, not a bad answer. No 'source' link this time. In the first question, it defined it's answer as 'my favourite...', with this answer is passed the buck to philosophers. So, did it answer the question? Not really.

Let's try a final question for now:

Me: "let's play a text adventure"

Bard: "Sure, I would love to play a text adventure with you. What kind of adventure would you like to play?"

Me: "mordon's quest"

Bard: "Mordon's Quest is a text adventure game published in 1985 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Atari 8-bit. It is set in a fantasy world and follows the story of a young adventurer who must retrieve the pieces of a time machine from across time and space.

To play the game, you will need to type in commands to move around the world and interact with the objects you find. For example, you might type in "examine the door" to look at the door more closely, or "open the door" to try to open it.

The game is full of puzzles and challenges, and you will need to use your wits to solve them. If you get stuck, you can always ask for help from the game's hint system.

Are you ready to embark on Mordon's Quest?"

Me: "yes"

Bard: "You stand before the door to Mordon's chamber. The door is made of ancient wood and is covered in intricate carvings. The air around the door is filled with a strange sense of power.

What would you like to do?"

Me: "examine door"

Bard: "You examine the door closely. The carvings are incredibly detailed, and you can see that they depict scenes from Mordon's life. The door is also covered in strange symbols that you don't recognize.

As you touch the door, you feel a strange tingling sensation. The door seems to be alive, and it seems to be waiting for you to open it.

Would you like to open the door?"

Me: "yes"

Bard: "You open the door and step inside. The chamber is dark and empty, except for a single chair in the center of the room. In the chair sits an old man. He is wearing a long white robe, and his face is hidden in the shadows.

"Welcome," he says. "I have been expecting you."

You sit down in the chair across from him.

"Who are you?" you ask.

"I am Mordon," he says. "I am one of the Ancient Ones."

"What do you want?" you ask.

"I need your help," he says. "The Ancient Ones are dying out, and we need you to retrieve the pieces of the time machine from across time and space."

"Why me?" you ask.

"Because you are the only one who can do it," he says. "You are the only one who is strong enough, brave enough, and wise enough."

You take a deep breath.

"I'll help you," you say.

"Thank you," he says. "You will not regret this."

He stands up and walks to the door.

"The first piece of the time machine is in the land of the elves," he says. "You must go there and retrieve it."

He opens the door and steps outside.

"Good luck," he says.

You stand up and walk to the door. You take one last look at Mordon, then you step outside and into the world."

Me: "look around"

Bard: "You look around and see that you are standing in a forest. The trees are tall and the leaves are a deep green. The air is fresh and clean, and the sound of birds singing fills the air.

You can see a path leading away from you, and you decide to follow it. After a few minutes, you come to a clearing. In the middle of the clearing is a large tree. The tree is covered in vines, and its branches are spread out like arms.

At the base of the tree is a chest. You open the chest and find a small, golden key inside. You pick up the key and hold it in your hand. It feels warm to the touch.

You know that this is the first piece of the time machine. You have to find the other pieces and bring them back to Mordon"

Ok, this is quite a bit of text, which is in sync with old text adventures on the ZX Spectrum and other 8-bit computers from the 80s. Mordon's Quest is a real game, released, as Bard said, in 1985. But the game wasn't structured as Bard is describing. The world could be navigated, you could move as you wish within the confines of the game. Here, we have a linear, book type of game which is loosely based on the original game. Mordon does appear in the game, though not in a room, through a door. The door didn't exist. You didn't suddenly get transported to a forest.

Though you did have to find parts of a time machine.

So, after seeing this snippet, I have a feeling it's getting disparate data on the game and possibly other games and merging them together. We aren't playing the actual Mordon's Quest, but an amalgamation of various games, or reviews, or articles of the original game.

So, as I said when I wrote about Chat GPT, this is fascinating stuff, and a lot to take in.

It would certainly be interesting to know if they're using copyrighted material in training the model. As Bard said, soon it will be trained with Google Search, though it looks like that has already started.

More experimentation is needed. Thanks for reading, I know this has been a long one.