Google’s Bard artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot can now help software programmers with generating and debugging code, the company announced Friday, April 21.

According to a Google blog post, Bard “can help with programming and software development tasks, including code generation, debugging and code explanation.”

Google says these capabilities will be available for over 20 programming languages, “including C++, Go, Java, Javascript, Python and Typescript.” Users can also export Python code to Google Colab, while Bard can also help with writing functions for Google Sheets.

The question as to how helpful Bard’s new features are remain a point of contention, however. Google has gone on record to say that this is still an “early experiment.”

While Bard will try and be helpful, Google says it “may sometimes provide inaccurate, misleading, or false information while presenting it confidently.”

Thus, double-checking Bard’s work – whether it’s for coding or other concerns – is essential to making sure Bard doesn’t make things worse, instead of better.

Bard ‘worse than useless’

The announcement of Bard’s new capabilities comes amid a Bloomberg report from April 19, saying concerns regarding AI ethics were ignored so Bard could be pushed out faster.

Internal discussions seen by Bloomberg called the Bard AI “a pathological liar” or otherwise “cringe-worthy.” When asked for instructions on how to land a plane, Bard AI gave out incorrect instructions that would lead to a crash. Another employee, requesting scuba instructions, received unsafe answers as well, which they said “would likely result in serious injury or death.”

One employee went so far as to post in February, “Bard is worse than useless: please do not launch.” Despite this, Bard came out in March.

Meredith Whittaker, former Google manager and president of the Signal Foundation, which supports private messaging, said of the seeming rush to push artificial intelligence, “AI ethics has taken a back seat.”

“If ethics aren’t positioned to take precedence over profit and growth, they will not ultimately work,” Whittaker added. – Rappler.com