After months of anticipation, Bard, Google’s conversational artificial intelligence, is expanding beyond Spain. Starting today, the tool rolls out to 27 countries in the European Union and Brazil, broadening accessibility that was paused during its February launch to manage overwhelming demand for ChatGPT, the rival from Microsoft.
The rollout includes support for 40 new languages, bringing Bard to languages such as Spanish, Chinese, and German. Additional languages like Catalan, Basque, and Galician are expected to be activated later, though a precise timeline was not provided.
Bard remains free to use and is offered as an add-on rather than a replacement for Google’s core search experience. Similar to ChatGPT, it can provide written answers to questions and also speak the responses aloud to users.
Until now, Bard had not been available in the EU. Google has stated that it took time to align the tool with privacy rules, particularly the General Data Protection Regulation. After months of regulatory dialogue and several enhancements, Bard is now ready to operate in Europe under updated safeguards.
business war
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, described Bard’s February 6 debut as an experimental and conversational AI service developed to complement Google’s suite of office tools. The initial release was somewhat hurried, driven by the rapid success of ChatGPT, which Google researchers helped inspire and which OpenAI later made widely known after Microsoft’s acquisition.
ChatGPT’s underlying technology originated from Google researchers in 2017, a reminder that Silicon Valley’s leading firms—Microsoft, Google, and Meta—are actively pursuing productive artificial intelligence. This market targets broad productivity enhancements and holds the promise of substantial profitability as these tools become more integrated into daily work and life. The competitive landscape continues to shape how businesses and users adopt and trust AI assistance across devices and services, including in North America and beyond. [Attribution: Alphabet and industry reporting]