Investor Fears Realized: Google's Chatbot Bard Gives Incorrect Answer

Google's AI-powered chatbot, Bard, has gotten off to a rough start after giving a wrong answer in a promotional video. This led to a sell-off of $100bn in Alphabet's value and investor fears that Microsoft's ChatGPT-powered Bing search engine will harm Google's business.

Bard's mistake was made in its response to a question about the James Webb Space Telescope and was noticed by experts, including an astrophysicist who tweeted that JWST did not take the first image of a planet outside our solar system.

Alphabet's stock slid by 9% during regular trading but was flat after hours. Google has since stated that the error highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process and has started a trusted tester program.

Bard is based on a large language AI model and is fed vast amounts of text from the internet in a process that teaches it how to generate responses to text-based prompts. However, this can also lead to repeating errors from absorbed information.

A live-streamed presentation in Paris by Google did not include details on how and when Bard would be integrated into its core search function. Meanwhile, Microsoft announced the launch of a public version of its Bing search with ChatGPT functions integrated.

Gil Luria, a senior software analyst at DA Davidson, stated that while Google has been a leader in AI innovation, they seemed to have fallen asleep on implementing this technology into their search product and the announcement was rushed and caused an embarrassing mess-up.

Alphabet's main business is Google and it has come off a disappointing fourth quarter as advertisers cut spending. Microsoft is a key backer of the company behind ChatGPT and its integration of ChatGPT technology into its products, including search, has forced Google to take action.

Despite this setback, Google is taking the situation seriously and working to make sure that Bard's responses meet a high bar for quality, safety, and grounding in real-world information. The future of AI-powered search engines is still uncertain, but it's clear that companies are pushing to integrate this technology into their products.