Google’s newly-launched AI chatbot, Bard, has generated a lot of buzz, but it’s nowhere to be found. Although Google claims it is in the hands of trusted testers, it seems that the product wasn’t even ready for launch in the first place.
An advert was made showcasing Bard’s capabilities, but it showed the AI bot responding inaccurately to a question, which now seems all so ill-timed. In the announcement, Google stated that Bard would provide fresh, high-quality responses and help users improve their skills by drawing information from the web, essentially creating their version of ChatGPT.
The bot was asked about discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope and replied that this telescope was the first to capture images of a planet outside our solar system, but NASA confirmed that the European Very Large Telescope achieved this feat in 2004. This error caught the attention of space enthusiasts worldwide and impacted more than just Bard’s fledgling reputation.
As a result of the error, Google’s parent company, Alphabet shares fell by more than 7%, reducing its market worth by $100 billion. The press conference and presentation to investors in Paris was also underwhelming, with references made to many products that are still unavailable at the moment. A demonstration of Google Lens’ AI-powered visual search feature was also unsuccessful because a phone needed to explain the feature wound up missing.
On the state of Bard, Google Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan said that the company will continue to use feedback from internal and external testing to ensure that Bard meets high standards for quality, safety, and groundedness before launching it more broadly.