Incorrect Answer Announced at Demonstration Event... Stock Price Plummets
Strong Internal and External Criticism... "It Was a Premature Announcement"
The world's largest search engine company, Google, faced criticism after its new AI-powered search engine 'Bard' failed to provide correct answers as a rival to ChatGPT. A Google official expressed a sense of responsibility.
Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President in charge of Google's search functions, stated in an interview with the German daily Welt am Sonntag, "We certainly feel a sense of urgency, but we also feel a greater sense of responsibility."
This suggests that after the emergence of ChatGPT and Microsoft integrating it into its search engine 'Bing', Google felt both impatience and a responsibility to provide accurate information.
Bard's incorrect answer causes stock price to plunge over 10% in two days
Google officially announced 'Bard,' a competitor to ChatGPT, on the 6th (local time) [Photo by Yonhap News]
Earlier, Google demonstrated Bard's capabilities in Paris, France, on the 8th, the day after Microsoft announced its new search engine 'Bing'.
During the demonstration, Bard was asked, "How would you explain the new discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to a 9-year-old?" Bard responded, "It was used to take the first pictures of planets outside the solar system."
However, this was incorrect. According to NASA, the first images of exoplanets were taken in 2004 by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT).
Following Bard's demonstration, Google's parent company Alphabet's stock price plunged over 10% in two days, wiping out nearly 150 trillion won in market capitalization.
In contrast, Microsoft's stock price rebounded on the day Bard made its mistake. Microsoft's stock, which integrated an AI chatbot into its Bing search service, has risen 11% this year.
Senior Vice President Raghavan also warned about the pitfalls of information provided by chatbots. He explained, "The AI we are talking about now can sometimes lead to hallucinations," adding, "AI expresses itself in a way that seems plausible but actually provides completely fabricated answers."
He added, "One of the fundamental challenges is to keep this to a minimum."
There has been considerable criticism within Google that Bard's announcement was rushed. On Google's internal communication site 'Memegen', some employees criticized the demonstration with comments such as "It was rushed" and "It was a mess," with some even unaware that the demonstration was taking place that day.
Targeting CEO Sundar Pichai, there were remarks such as, "Dear Sundar, the Bard launch and layoffs were rushed and short-sighted."
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