Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) saw a $100 billion decline in market value on Wednesday as a result of its new chatbot providing false information in a promotional video and a lacklustre company event, fueling concerns that the parent company of Google is falling behind rival Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O).
During regular trading, Alphabet shares fell as much as 9%, with volumes nearly tripling the 50-day moving average. After hours, they reduced their losses and were nearly flat. With Wednesday’s losses excluded, the stock has gained 15% since the start of this year after losing 40% of its value last year.
Google’s advertising promoting the chatbot Bard, which made its debut on Monday, contained a factual error concerning which satellite captured the first images of a planet outside of our solar system. This error was first discovered by Reuters.
After OpenAI, a company Microsoft is investing $10 billion in, unveiled software in November that amazed users and became a craze in Silicon Valley circles for its shockingly accurate and well-written responses to straightforward questions, Google has been reeling.
Google did not get into specifics regarding how and when it would integrate Bard into its primary search function during its live-streamed presentation on Wednesday morning. Microsoft announced at an event the previous day that a ChatGPT-integrated version of their Bing search had already been made available to the public.
Just before the presentation, Mountain View, California-based Google found Bard’s inaccuracy.
According to Gil Luria, senior software analyst at D.A. Davidson, “Google has been a pioneer in AI research over the last many years, but they seemed to have fallen asleep on applying this technology into their search engine.” Google has been rushing to catch up on Search over the past few weeks, which resulted in the announcement on Tuesday being made in a hurry and the humiliating gaffe of releasing the incorrect response during their presentation.
On Wednesday, Microsoft stock increased by almost 3%; in after-hours trade, it remained unchanged.
Alphabet promised on Twitter that a brief GIF video showing Bard in action would help to explain complex subjects, but it instead provided an incorrect response.
What recent findings from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can I share with my 9-year-old? is the advertisement’s prompt for Bard. Bard offers several responses, one of which claims that the JWST was used to capture the first images of exoplanets, or worlds outside the solar system. But as NASA has confirmed, it was the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory that captured the first images of exoplanets in 2004.
What recent findings from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can I share with my 9-year-old? is the advertisement’s prompt for Bard. Bard offers several responses, one of which claims that the JWST was used to capture the first images of exoplanets, or worlds outside the solar system. But as NASA has confirmed, it was the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory that captured the first images of exoplanets in 2004.
