On Wednesday, Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google, experienced a decrease in the market value of approximately $100 billion, following an error made by its new artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, Bard. During a promotional video showcasing Bard’s capabilities at Google’s virtual event “Live from Paris,” the chatbot incorrectly stated that the James Webb Space Telescope was the first to capture images of a planet outside of Earth’s solar system, when in fact that achievement belongs to the European Very Large Telescope.
The mistake caused Alphabet shares to drop 7.68% by the end of trading. Google introduced Bard on Monday as a new AI service aimed at engaging with information through various mediums, including language, images, videos, and audio, to provide fresh and high-quality responses.
In a blog post, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet, stated that Bard’s purpose was to “combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models,” and that the chatbot could be utilized for creative expressions, serving as a platform for curiosity and discovery. Despite the error, the incorrect information remains in a gif on the blog post.
