Google published an online advertisement in which its much-anticipated AI chatbot Bard delivered an inaccurate answer.
Introduced on Feb. 6, Bard was touted in an online ad by Google that ran in the company’s Twitter feed.
In the tweet, Google described the chatbot as a “launchpad for curiosity” that would help simplify complex topics—and included a short GIF video ad of Bard in action.
In the ad, Bard is given the prompt: “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (or JWST), can I tell my 9-year old about?”
Bard responds with a number of answers, including one suggesting the JWST was used to take the very first pictures of a planet outside the Earth’s solar system, or exoplanets.
This is inaccurate.
The first pictures of exoplanets were taken by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in 2004, as confirmed by NASA.
The error was spotted hours before Google hosted a launch event for Bard in Paris, where a Google senior executive touted Bard as the future of the company.
Google’s launch event came one day after Microsoft unveiled plans to integrate its rival AI chatbot ChatGPT into its Bing search engine and other products.
As for Bard’s mistake, a Google spokesperson told Reuters: “This highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process, something that we’re kicking off this week …” so that “Bard’s responses meet a high bar for quality, safety, and groundedness in real-world information.”
