Google Bard gets new features to catch up with rival ChatGPT's popularity

Alphabet's Google said on Tuesday that Bard, its generative artificial intelligence, will have the ability to fact-check its answers and analyze users' personal Google data as the tech giant scrambles to catch up to ChatGPT in popularity.

The release last year of ChatGPT, a chatbot from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, sparked a race in the tech industry to give consumers access to generative AI technology. 

At the time, ChatGPT was the fastest-growing consumer application ever and is now one of the top 30 websites in the world.

Bard has not taken off in the same way. In August, it received 183 million visits, 13 percent of what ChatGPT received, according to website analytics firm Similarweb.

As it seeks to gain ground in the fast-moving AI space, Google is rolling out Bard Extensions, enabling users to import their data from other Google products.

For instance, users could ask Bard to search their files in Google Drive or provide a summary of the user's Gmail inbox.

For now, Bard users will only be able to pull information in from Google apps, but Google is working with external companies to connect their applications into Bard in the future, Google senior product director Jack Krawczyk said.