Reuters revealed an error in Google’s Bard, AI chatbot advertisement that led to a loss of more than $100 billion in Alphabet Inc.’s market value. On Wednesday, Alphabet’s shares fell 8% or $8.59 per share to $99.05 due to inaccurate information in the ad and a lack of details in its AI search event on how it plans to compete with Microsoft’s ChatGPT.
Alphabet Inc tweeted a short GIF video showcasing Bard’s capabilities, promising that it would simplify complex topics. However, the advertisement delivered an inaccurate answer. In the video, Bard was asked :”What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can I tell my 9-year-old about?”
Bard responded to the prompt with several answers, one of which suggested that the JWST took the first pictures of exoplanets. However, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) actually captured the first images of exoplanets in 2004, as confirmed by NASA.
“Bard is an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA. Built using our large language models and drawing on information from the web, it’s a launchpad for curiosity and can help simplify complex topics →”
Originally tweeted by Google (@Google) on February 6, 2023.
Above is the tweet and the ad which was posted by Google on its twitter handle.
“This highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process, something that we’re kicking off this week with our Trusted Tester program. We’ll combine external feedback with our own internal testing to make sure Bard’s responses meet a high bar for quality, safety, and groundedness in real-world information,” an official from Google made this statement.
Reuters discovered that tech executives have become fixated on Artificial Intelligence and mention it six times more often in recent earnings calls than in previous quarters. The attraction of AI-powered search lies in its ability to provide results in simple language instead of a long list of links, potentially making browsing faster and more efficient. However, the impact on targeted advertising, the foundation of search engines like Google, remains unclear.
Corporations also face risks from the use of AI chatbot systems due to the inherent biases in their algorithms, which can lead to skewed results, inappropriate images, and even plagiarism, as discovered by consumers testing the service.