Google owner Alphabet Inc fell by the most in over three months after a demonstration of its new artificial intelligence chatbot, Bard, triggered concerns that the tech giant has lost ground in the race for the future of internet search. Google has been under pressure since developer OpenAI launched its wildly popular chatbot, ChatGPT, which many in the tech industry tout as the next generation of search. On Tuesday, Microsoft Corp., which is investing billions in OpenAI, unveiled a new version of its Bing search engine and Edge browser incorporating technology from the AI startup. On Wednesday, Google hosted a news conference in Paris where it shared more details about its progress integrating artificial intelligence into search.
An advertisement shared online by Google demonstrating how Bard works, however, showed the chatbot return a factually incorrect response.
When asked: “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old about?” Bard offered three bullet points in return, including one that stated that the telescope “took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system.”
But the first image of an exoplanet was taken in 2004, as confirmed by NASA, almost two decades before the James Webb Space Telescope was even launched in 2021.
Google said in a statement that Bard’s response “highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process.” The company said it will combine external feedback with its own internal testing to ensure Bard’s responses “meet a high bar for quality, safety and groundedness in real-world information.”
Alphabet’s shares had fallen 7.6%, trading at about US$99.85 on Wednesday afternoon.
