Laxman Vijay

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Bard is Google’s version of conversational AI similar to ChatGPT which has taken the internet by storm over the past few months. This is due to the nature of human like conversational abilities by these AI systems, more and more people finding it using for a variety of tasks.

When it comes to conversational AI, Google is undisputed given the amount of research and development they have done over the years in this field. Bard is the next addition in their lineup. Although given the timing, Bard is simply recognised as a competitor to ChatGPT rather than a flagship product from Google.

Bard is based on the Language Model for Dialogue Application or LaMDA which was released 2 years also by Google. 

“Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models. It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses” according to the [announcement blog](https://blog.google/technology/ai/bard-google-ai-search-updates/) from Google.

This new product adds to Google’s portfolio of AI models including LaMDA, PaLM, Imagen and MusicLM. All these provides more tools to enhance generational AI and impacting the creativity space. 

As of now, there is no demo version of Bard similar to how [ChatGPT has one.](http://chat.openai.com) However, Google says, these new features will be integrated into Google search soon. 

Also, Google plans to release developer APIs from next month starting with Language API powered by LaMDA and followed by other models soon.

Google introduces Bard which is a conversational AI similar to ChatGPT.

Google introduces Bard, Its answer to ChatGPT


If you are developer, you would have that natural instinct to automate everything that comes along the way. Create a folder? automate. Open browser and Spotify when opening vs code? automate. But. Its not that easy and you know it. We have a couple of options in Mac like Shortcuts and Automator. However, these are UI driven. I know your programmer mind is screaming, “who wants an UI automation tool?”.

But I don’t like going all in on a Python script and running it every time either. Fair enough.

Enter [ScriptKit](https://www.scriptkit.com/)… The very first time I saw ScriptKit and its capabilities, I was completely blown away. Its in this sweet spot between a complete scripting language and a full blown UI automator.  It has endless possibilities on what you could automate with it. The cherry on top? Its in Typescript. Its amazing. 

ScriptKit itself is based on Google’s [zx](https://github.com/google/zx) which is a cli executable for javascript files.

![https://mcusercontent.com/d3088c0b6f03798a651d40fff/images/84ed56b6-98e6-d1cd-a5fe-0bb739554c6a.jpeg](https://mcusercontent.com/d3088c0b6f03798a651d40fff/images/84ed56b6-98e6-d1cd-a5fe-0bb739554c6a.jpeg)

In this article, I will be showing 2 examples which are both cool and helpful to get started in ScriptKit.

## Before that,

Here is a very simple hello world script:

```
// Name: Display HTML

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

await div(`<h1>Hello World</h1>`)
```

## Example 1

### Open favourite sites in a click

Opening your favourite sites should be a single one click process and must not involve several steps. Here is a way to achieve it:

```tsx
// Name: Open Favorite Sites

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

try {
    let path = await arg("Type a site to open", [
        {
          name: "Youtube Music",
          description: "Opens YT music in a browser window",
          value: "https://music.youtube.com",
        },
        {
          name: "Pocket",
          description: "Opens Pocket in a browser window",
          value: "https://getpocket.com/saves",
        },
        {
          name: "Archivorous",
          description: "Opens Archivorous in a browser window",
          value: "https://archivorous.com",
        },
      ])

    $`open ${path}`
} catch (e) {
    log(e)
}
```

The script is simple, I define a bunch of sites and open the one I selected using the `zx $` command.

If you don’t believe me about ScriptKit, install and give this script a try with your own favourite sites. You will fall in love ❤️

## Example 2

Are you a fan of smart home devices? You will love this one. Let’s use ScriptKit to automatically turn on/off the smart lights.

One of the best things about ScriptKit is its ability to make HTTP request. Although controlling smart devices is not natively possible in ScriptKit, we can utilise the ever amazing [IFTTT](https://ifttt.com/) to achieve this.

But first, there are a couple of prerequisites: 

- You must have IFTTT setup without your smart device provider ( for example: Philips). The webhook provides complete control over the device. Careful with it.
- You must have a webhook IFTTT action created like this:

![https://mcusercontent.com/d3088c0b6f03798a651d40fff/images/a1cca452-426d-0db6-3eab-3446a3452aa9.jpeg](https://mcusercontent.com/d3088c0b6f03798a651d40fff/images/a1cca452-426d-0db6-3eab-3446a3452aa9.jpeg)

Now you can use the script below:

I am using IFTTT free version and so I cannot parse the incoming json in the webhook for dynamically controlling the lights. (But if you do have a pro version, you can use it to write javascript in IFTTT console and dynamically control which light is triggered in a single webook).

But for my purposes, I have created 6 webhooks and integrated them with ScriptKit:

```tsx
// Name: turn on or off smart lights

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

try {
    let selectedLight = await arg("Type a site to open", [
        {
          name: "Playroom on",
          description: "Turn on the playroom light",
          value: "playroom_lights_on",
        },
        {
          name: "Playroom off",
          description: "Turn off the playroom light",
          value: "playroom_lights_off",
        },
        {
          name: "Bedroom on",
          description: "Turn on the bedroom light",
          value: "bedroom_lights_on",
        },
        {
          name: "Bedroom off",
          description: "Turn off the bedroom light",
          value: "bedroom_lights_off",
        },
        {
          name: "Living room on",
          description: "Turn on the living light",
          value: "livingroom_lights_on",
        },
        {
          name: "Living room off",
          description: "Turn off the living light",
          value: "livingroom_lights_off",
        },
      ])

    await post(`https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/${selectedLight}/json/with/key/<your key>`)
} catch (e) {
    log(e)
}
```

Now if you invoke the script, voila! 

The light turns on like magic. No voice commands, no mobile app, just from your computer without even taking your hands off the keyboard.

Hopefully, these examples are inspiring enough to explore ScriptKit. There is also a silent hero: IFTTT which performed all the heavy lifting for us.

Integrate ScriptKit with other automation services and create an unforgetable experience

Ifttt

Automate your life with Typescript and ScriptKit

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