Google Bard may not be the hottest generative language AI model in town, especially given its hasty launch following the introduction of its biggest competitor, ChatGPT 4. But Google is hard at work improving its product ever since its launch, with the latest addition in line coming in the form of optional location sharing with the AI for more relevant answers.
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When you first visit the Bard website, you’re greeted by a popup that tells you about the new location option. The popup reiterates that Bard already uses your approximate location based on your IP address and your Google Account’s work and home addresses, but now it’s also possible to send your device’s precise location to the chatbot. You can either dismiss the option or click right through to using your precise location, with your browser then prompting you to grant Bard the permission. The company also announced the addition in its Bard changelog.
With precise location enabled, you’ll see a note in the bottom left corner of the Bard interface telling you where Bard thinks you’re currently at. When you tap the indicator, you can see which exact location Bard is pulling on a small Maps preview.
The new option makes it easier for Bard to use your location in relevant prompts, such as when you ask it about the current weather conditions or which restaurants and train stations are near you. Previously, you had to rely on your IP address to be accurate enough to work for these kinds of prompts or manually provide Bard with your address in a prompt.
Location sharing has always been a sensitive topic, and it’s only exacerbated when combined with a chatbot. Snapchat learned that lesson with its AI offering, which claims that it doesn’t know users’ locations when asked directly about it, but happily offers suggestions for nearby places when asked about them. The reason for this behavior is that like other chatbots, Snapchat’s AI receives an invisible prompt at the beginning of a conversation that includes details like the current date and time and the IP address-based approximate location of the user, including a request not to tell the user that it knows the location.
Bard’s solution is more elegant in theory as it offers a dedicated switch to turn location access on or off. However, when we tested this with the toggle turned on, the chatbot still claimed it didn’t know our location, and only some of its responses were using our correct location. For example, when prompted about which KFCs are the closest to our location, it only gave the correct answer once, and even then its estimates as to how far away the restaurants are were partially incorrect. We tested this both with a US VPN activated in Germany and without one in India, with these inconsistencies present in both cases.
When you use this feature, keep in mind that Bard prompts might be used to further improve the product, so be mindful of what location details (and any other personal information, for that matter) you share with the chatbot.
Thanks: Moshe E
