Google AI Makes Error During Demo

An inaccurate response has shaken investor faith in the development.

An inaccurate response has shaken investor faith in the development.

Earlier this week, tech giant Google released a brief demo of their AI-powered chatbot, Bard, on their Twitter page. In this demo, a hypothetical user asked the AI “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9 year old about,” to which the chatbot responded “JWST took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system.”

However, eagle-eyed users swiftly pointed out an inaccuracy in the AI’s response: the first pictures of external planets were actually taken by European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope as far back as 2004. Though a small error, the fact that Google’s AI made such an obvious mistake has investors second-guessing their commitment to the project.

Following the demo, shares in Google parent company Alphabet dropped by 7.7%, which translates to roughly $100 billion of the company’s market value. A Google spokesperson spoke to Reuters about the gaff, noting that it makes clear just how important testing is to the AI development process.

“This highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process, something that we’re kicking off this week with our Trusted Tester program,” they said. “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.”