Oops! Shares of Google parent Alphabet lost $100 billion in a day after a new AI chatbot gave the wrong answer

Google parent Alphabet lost $100 billion in market value on Wednesday after its new chatbot shared false information in a promotional video, according to Reuters, sparking concerns that parent Google is losing ground to rival Microsoft Corp.

$100 billion in losses after Bart gave the wrong answer
Alphabet shares fell more than 7% during regular trading yesterday after Alphabet posted a short GIF video of the bard via Twitter, promising to help simplify complex topics, but it delivered the wrong answer.

Alphabet stock lost 40% of its value last year, but managed to rally 15% since the start of the year, and then came Wednesday’s bloodbath.

What Google Ads Showed
In the ad, Bard asks, “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can I tell my 9-year-old?” Bard responds with several answers, JWST was used to take the first images of a planet outside Earth’s solar system, or exoplanets.

However, the first images of exoplanets, as confirmed by NASA, were taken by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in 2004.
Google’s answer

Bard is an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA. Built using our large language models and drawing on information from the web, it’s a launchpad for curiosity and can help simplify complex topics → https://t.co/fSp531xKy3 pic.twitter.com/JecHXVmt8l

— Google (@Google) February 6, 2023

“This highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process,” a Google spokesperson said, adding that the testing process combines external feedback with Alphabet’s own internal testing to confirm Bard’s answers. “Meet the high bar for quality, security and reliability in global information.”

Bard’s bug was discovered shortly before a presentation by Mountain View, California-based Google, the Forbes report noted.