Google Bard's upcoming extensions could make it my new travel buddy

Bard AI is a conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google as a response of ChatGPT. Isolated 3D icon

(Image credit: AdriaVidal via Shutterstock)

Google Bard has finally found its legs after an incredibly rocky start and a long game of catch-up with other chatbots like ChatGPT and Microsofts’ Bing Chat. Luckily for Google, Bard has picked up the slack and introduced a whole lot of new features since its launch. Now, extensions may soon be coming to Bard and be the final push it needs to meet and maybe surpass ChatGPT.

During Google I/O 2023, the company mentioned developing extension support for Bard, and while the tech giant has delivered on many of the other features - including image-generation capabilities, maps integration, and better logical understanding - we haven’t had any updates about extension support.

But that could be about to change. Dylan Roussel from 9to5google has uncovered an early preview of what the extensions could look like within the Bard web app. While the UI is available, from the preview it doesn’t seem like any of the extensions actually work - yet.

Screenshot of potentially UI — (Image credit: 9to5Google)

Let's go to the beach!

These extensions include Google Flights, Hotels, and Maps, as well as Youtube and even Zillow. It’s interesting to see the selection of services offered, as all the extensions combined look a lot like travel planning essentials.

This could suggest Google is planning to push Bard as a planning assistant, which in all honesty is a really good idea to begin solidifying Bard into our everyday endeavors. Rather than unleash the chatbot on a ‘blank user template’ so to speak, Google’s plan to align Bard with basic travel planning could mean more people will be inclined to get acquainted with the chatbot and its new extensions.

In any case, these extensions will essentially bring Bard up to par with ChatGPT, and give the quirky bot a leg up in the race for AI supremacy.

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Muskaan is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing writer. She has always been a passionate writer and has had her creative work published in several literary journals and magazines. Her debut into the writing world was a poem published in The Times of Zambia, on the subject of sunflowers and the insignificance of human existence in comparison. Growing up in Zambia, Muskaan was fascinated with technology, especially computers, and she's joined TechRadar to write about the latest GPUs, laptops and recently anything AI related. If you've got questions, moral concerns or just an interest in anything ChatGPT or general AI, you're in the right place. Muskaan also somehow managed to install a game on her work MacBook's Touch Bar, without the IT department finding out (yet).