We all love a healthy dose of schadenfreude, especially when it comes at the expense of one of the world's largest tech companies trying to stand out, well ...... It's just pure unadulterated joy, no." Google's ad highlighting the power of its new AI chatbot BARD only highlighted how confident it was in delivering inaccurate results.

And as a result, about $100 billion disappeared from the market value (open in new tab) of parent company Alphabet. Hmmm. That's an expensive misstep, Bard.

AI has a long history of problematic answers and replies, generally of the more prejudicial side, such as the Korean chatbot that was shut down by Facebook (opens in new tab) and Microsoft's own ultra-racist chatbot, Tay (opens in new tab).

At the very least, BARD's errors were factually inaccurate rather than ideologically problematic.

Google was forced to back away from its own BARD AI by the rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT. Microsoft has now announced a new chat version of Bing that integrates ChatGPT's code (opens in new tab), and you can be one of the first to try it out if you sign up.

Speaking as a typing meatsack who depends on writing for money, it is still somewhat of a problem, but this genie cannot be put back in the bottle. What both ChatGPT and Google's BARD show, however, is that AI results depend entirely on the quality of the information given. If given the wrong information, AI will simply parrot it back confidently to the end user.

And BARD did it in a promotional ad that stated that one of the things it could tell a 9-year-old about the James Webb Space Telescope was that it provided the first images of planets outside the solar system. In fact, it was the ludicrously titled Very Large Telescope that did it in 2004 (opens in new tab).

Google said the embarrassment "underscores the importance of a rigorous testing process, and we are launching our Trusted Tester program this week.

According to Reuters (opens in new tab), a Google spokesperson also said, "We combine external feedback with our own internal testing to ensure that Bird's responses meet our high standards for quality, security, and real-world intelligence."

However, the market did not like the flip-flop response, and Alphabet shares fell as low as 9% at one point. One hundred billion dollars disappeared from the market capitalization. However, given the constant volatility of the stock market, it is worth pointing out that the market value figure is a rather illusory corporate valuation.

Its stock price has now settled at about 7% below its trading price before the ads went public, but that is still a significant drop.

AI will certainly be a key battleground for search engines in the coming years, and Microsoft seems to have gotten a head start on its competitors. However, it is not clear what impact this will have in the future. Google is a huge company. So the OpenAI integration is unlikely to encourage people to switch to Bing in the long run. Who would use that as a verb? Did I Bing it for you? Let me Bing it for you." no.