Google continues its efforts to catch up with Microsoft, finally adding the ability to use its Bard AI to help with coding.

One of the most common uses for generative AI is helping programming write and debug code. Microsoft’s Bing AI has had the feature for some time, but Google has now brought it to its Bard competitor.

Paige Bailey, Google Research Group Product Manager, announced the upgrade in a blog post:

Since we launched Bard, our experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI, coding has been one of the top requests we’ve received from our users. As a product lead in Google Research — and a passionate engineer who still programs every day — I’m excited that today we’re updating Bard to include that capability.

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. And you can easily export Python code to Google Colab — no copy and paste required. Bard can also assist with writing functions for Google Sheets.

Bard can also be used by those just learning to program, thanks to its ability to explain code snippets:

In addition to generating code, Bard can help explain code snippets for you. This is particularly helpful if you’re learning about programming for the first time, or if you need some additional support to understand what a block of code might output.

Bailey says Bard can also help debug code, as well as optimize it to make it run faster.

Of course, there’s still the question of whether AI should even be used for programming. According to a recent Stanford University survey, using AI assistants to write code often leads to buggier, less secure code.