Google is preparing to integrate Bard with ChromeOS

After Microsoft announced the new Bing search engine and Edge browser powered by ChatGPT, Google is following suit. The search giant has begun preparations to integrate its LaMDA-powered conversational AI (artificial intelligence) tool Bard, which is a ChatGPT competitor, with ChromeOS.

Over the past few days, Google engineers have made several code changes to Chromium Gerrit hinting at the company’s plans with Bard. Spotted by 9to5Google, one of those changes ChromeOS will soon get “Conversational Search” as an experimental feature. “Launcher experiment: conversational search,” the Chrome flag is titled, with the description: to evaluate the viability of a conversational search provider as part of launcher search.

Separately, the publication found another code change simply titled “brad”. It appears to be an intentional misspelling of Bard. But the bottom line is that Google appears to be hard at work to bring Bard to ChromeOS. The whole “conversational search” has become a thing only since ChatGPT arrived on the scene. And Bard is Google’s answer to the AI tool created by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, which has taken the internet by storm, raking in more than 100 million users in less than two months.

According to the new report, enabling the experimental flag on Chrome will replace the built-in search features of the ChromeOS launcher with a Bard-powered chat. Since the whole thing is still in development, Google could change the design and implementation of the feature by the time it’s ready for the public. But we may not have to wait much longer for the new Bard-integrated ChromeOS. The company wouldn’t want to give away a too big headstart to Microsoft in this AI race.

Microsoft and Google are leading this AI revolution

Google’s Bard launch last week didn’t quite go to plan. The AI tool gave a factually incorrect answer in its first demo itself. The mistake cost the company $100 billion in market cap. However, the internet giant is expected to leave behind this slip-up and quickly get on track to catch ChatGPT in the newfound AI craze. Industry experts see Microsoft and Google running a two-horse race in this technological revolution over the next decade or so.

Apart from ChromeOS, Google is also expected to integrate Bard with other products, including Search, Google Assistant, and more. Perhaps the latter two products are a better fit as a launching point for Bard than ChromeOS. Nonetheless, since Microsoft has the first-mover advantage, the company would likely rush to make it happen as soon as possible. We should hear more about Google’s plans with Bard in the next few months, so stay tuned.