Google’s Gemini-Powered Bard Says Goodbye to PaLM2 as More Languages Are Added

On February 1, 2024, Google announced it now supports more than 40 languages for Bard, now powered by multimodal AI model Gemini Pro. 

Quick recap: Google first launched its large language model (LLM), Bard, in May 2023. At that time, Bard was available in US English, Japanese, and Korean, but was “on track to support 40 languages soon.”

Google brought Bard to Europe and Brazil in July 2023, along with capabilities in more than 40 languages. Bard was also able to read responses aloud in those languages. 

Gemini, a general AI model, was integrated into Bard in December 2023, accompanied by claims that it outperformed ChatGPT on automatic speech recognition and automatic speech translation. Gemini Pro’s linguistic capabilities were limited to English, but accessible in more than 170 countries and territories. 

In addition to the languages covered, users can now access Bard with Gemini Pro in more than 230 countries and territories. 

One notable exception: Canada. The omission did not go unnoticed, as one fan tweeted: “Any upcoming plans for availability in Canada? As much as I love seeing the improvements lately — VPN speeds make it nearly unusable here up North.”

Other enhanced features include image generation — using English prompts — and double-checking in all supported languages. (Users can search the web to determine whether online content supports or contradicts Bard’s responses.)

“Thank you, PaLM2 for all you did to get us here,“ tweeted Google Product Lead Jack Krawczyk. He later clarified, “PaLM2 is still working, just no longer powering Bard.”