AI showdown as Google Bard levels up with Imagen 2 for free image generation.
Google’s Bard chatbot is now incorporating AI image generation, a feature that competitor ChatGPT Plus has had for months. Users can instruct Bard to create images using Google’s Imagen 2 text-to-image model.
Google’s Gemini Pro large language model powered Bard, was expected to utilize the more potent Gemini Ultra model for image generation; however, Google is still developing the Ultra model. Google has positioned Bard as a strong rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus, which operates on GPT-4 and allows users to generate images through DALL-E 3 integration.
Both chatbots perform well, but Bard’s previous lack of text-to-image capabilities gave ChatGPT Plus a slight advantage. The updated Bard with Imagen 2 is available for free, in contrast to ChatGPT Plus, which requires a paid subscription.
AI image generation faced criticism recently due to the proliferation of sexually explicit fake photos of Taylor Swift on various platforms. While the specific platforms used for generating these images remain unknown, tech companies are taking measures to secure their image generating platforms.
Google’s AI Image Tools: Bard & ImageFX Responsibility
In response to concerns, Google emphasized that it developed Bard’s image capability with responsibility in mind. The company introduced a watermarking feature that embeds into the pixels of the generated photos, indicating their AI origin.
Google also implemented technical and safety measures to prevent the generation of images featuring well-known individuals and to limit violent, offensive, or sexually explicit content.
The scope of image generation is not restricted to Bard alone. Google introduced a new experimental photo tool, ImageFX, powered by Imagen 2. ImageFX allows users to create images using simple text prompts, enabling people to explore generative AI. Feedback from users will be directly conveyed to Google engineers.
Similar to Bard, all photos generated through ImageFX will be marked by SynthID and adhere to Google’s AI principles and technical safety measures. ImageFX joins other AI creation tools like MusicFX and TextFX, released last year. And is available for testing on Google Labs.
Several additional expansions are undergoing for Bard. Despite the current limitation of image generation to English, the chatbot has broadened its language support to over 40 languages across more than 230 countries.
In its previous version, Bard only functioned in English and was accessible in 170 countries. The expanded language repertoire includes Arabic, Bengali, Tamil, Urdu, and more.Google has also extended the double-check feature to 40 languages. This feature allows users to assess responses by automatically searching the internet to corroborate or contradict the provided content.
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