Google Bard Chatbot Blunders in Ad Touting New Technology as Competition With Microsoft Heats Up

Google's AI chatbot was asked a question about what to tell a nine-year-old about discoveries from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

Advertisement
By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 9 February 2023 11:10 IST
Highlights
  • Google announced on Wednesday AI-induced improvements across products
  • Analysts suggested Google rushed its announcement
  • Google Vice President did not give timeline for a public release
Google Bard Chatbot Blunders in Ad Touting New Technology as Competition With Microsoft Heats Up

Google is battling to preserve its two-decade dominance of the web search industry

Photo Credit: Reuters

Google on Wednesday announced a slew of features powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), but a mistake in an ad caused its share price to tank.

The search engine giant is rushing into the space after the bot ChatGPT caught the imagination of web users around the world with its ability to generate essays, speeches and even exam papers in seconds.

Microsoft has announced a multimillion-dollar partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI and unveiled new products on Tuesday, while Google tried to steal the march a day earlier by announcing its "Bard" alternative.

The bots are quickly being integrated into search engines and Google is battling to preserve its two-decade dominance of the web search industry.

Advertisement

But astronomers on Twitter quickly noticed that Google's Bard had given out an error in an ad on Twitter touting its new technology.

In the ad, the bot was asked about what to tell a nine-year-old about discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Advertisement

It incorrectly offered the response that the telescope was the first to take pictures of a planet outside Earth's solar system, when that honour actually belongs to the European Very Large Telescope.

The mess-up sent the share price spiralling down by more than seven percent on Wednesday with investors also underwhelmed by the latest announcements.

Advertisement

Before the problem emerged, Google Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan told an event in Paris that Bard was now being used by "trusted testers" but did not give a timeline for a public release, which is expected within weeks.

Analysts have suggested Google rushed its announcement under pressure from Microsoft, but Raghavan denied the claim.

"This has been a multiyear journey," he said, adding that no single event had "dramatically changed the course" of Google's plans.

Google executives announced on Wednesday several AI-induced improvements across products including maps, translation and its image recognition tool Lens.

Microsoft has similarly said it will incorporate AI into its Office suite and Teams messaging app.

But its promise to soup up its much-maligned Bing search engine put it on a collision course with Google, which has dominated the field for two decades.

AI chatbots like ChatGPT hold the promise of supplying users with ready-made answers from multiple sources, replacing the familiar list of links and ads that have been Google's bread and butter for two decades.

Media reports said the overnight success of ChatGPT was designated a "code red" threat at Google with founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page -- who left several years ago -- brought back to brainstorm ideas and fast-track a response.

The pressure to act was heightened last week when Google parent Alphabet posted disappointing results and announced it was laying off 12,000 employees.


Samsung's Galaxy S23 series of smartphones was launched earlier this week and the South Korean firm's high-end handsets have seen a few upgrades across all three models. What about the increase in pricing? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: ChatGPT, Google, Goolge Bard, Bard, Microsoft, AI
Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. Nothing Announces 'Now or Nothing' Sale in India: Check All Offers
  2. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra Allegedly Saves Life by Stopping Shrapnel
  3. Vivo T4 Ultra Launched in India With 50-Megapixel Periscope Camera
  4. Know All About Apple's New Liquid Glass Design Language
  5. Here's When the OnePlus Nord 5 and OnePlus Nord CE 5 Could Launch
  6. Starlink to Launch in India With Rs. 33,000 Setup Kit, Unlimited Plans
  7. Itel Zeno 5G With 50-Megapixel Rear Camera Launched in India: See Price
  8. Android 16 Update Is Coming Soon - Here's What to Expect
  9. OpenAI Finally Releases O3-Pro Reasoning AI Model for Paid Users
  10. Gemini in Google Docs Is Now Available on Android Devices
  1. Oppo K13x 5G Design, Colour Options Revealed; Tipped to Launch Later This Month
  2. Threads Begins Testing the Ability to Send DMs Without Switching to Instagram
  3. Nintendo Announces Splatoon Raiders Spinoff Title for Switch 2 Alongside Splatoon 3 Update
  4. Snap Specs to Launch in 2026 as Competitor to Meta's AI Smart Glasses
  5. Crypto Price Today: Bitcoin Hovers Near $110,000 as Most Altcoins See Gains
  6. Google Expands Gemini in Google Docs to Android Devices, Available in Over 20 Languages
  7. Starlink to Launch in India With Rs. 33,000 Setup Kit, Unlimited Data Plans Starting at Rs. 3,000: Report
  8. OpenAI Releases o3-Pro Reasoning-Focused AI Model, Comes With Improved Capabilities and Tool Use
  9. Google's June 2025 Pixel Drop Brings AI Sticker Generation to Gboard, Pixel VIPs Widget and Camera Hints
  10. Nintendo Switch 2 Sets Record, Sells Over 3.5 Million Units in First Four Days of Launch
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.