Bard is a conversational generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google, based initially on the LaMDA family of large language models (LLMs) and later the PaLM LLM.
It was developed as a direct response to the rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT, and was released in a limited capacity in March 2023 to lukewarm responses, before expanding to other countries in May.
LaMDA had been developed and announced in 2021, but was not released to the public.
OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 and its subsequent popularity caught Google executives off-guard and sent them to a panic, prompting a massive and unprecedented level of response in the ensuing months. After mobilizing its workforce, the company scrambled to launch Bard in February 2023, with the chatbot taking center stage during the 2023 Google I/O keynote in May.