Google’s AI Chatbot Can Now Write Code

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Google’s conversation AI tool Bard can now help software developers with programming, including generating code, debugging and code explanation — a new set of skills that were added in response to user demand.

Coding has been one of the top requests Google has received from users, according to a Friday blog post by Google Research product lead Paige Bailey.

“Starting now, Bard can help with programming and software development tasks, including code generation, debugging and code explanation. We’re launching these capabilities in more than 20 programming languages including C++, Go, Java, Javascript, Python and Typescript.” Said Google in their official announcement of the launch.

This means that Bard, the generative AI experiment Google launched earlier this year, can review and help users debug their source code line by line. Google said developers can tell Bard “this code didn’t work, please fix it,” and it will help debug.

It can also translate code from one language to another and explain code snippets, a helpful feature for those new to programming.

Bard is already helping people with everyday tasks, from crafting presentations and writing lesson plans to inventing new recipes or planning a workout routine. Alarmed at the success of Microsoft-owned OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has created a unit that will help the company build more capable AI systems safely and responsibly, under the name ‘Google DeepMind’.