Alphabet shares dive after Google AI chatbot Bard flubs answer in ad
Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL) shares took a dive on Thursday after one of its chatbots, Bard, failed to provide accurate information during an ad.
The chatbot, which is powered by Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology, was demoed during the company’s event on Wednesday.
During the demo, Bard was asked a question about the size of the moon.
The chatbot responded with “the Moon is about 384,400 kilometers from Earth,” which is inaccurate.
The correct answer is that the Moon is about 384,400 kilometers away from Earth.
This gaffe caused Alphabet’s shares to fall by 7% in pre-market trading.
This is not the first time that Bard has gotten into trouble.
The chatbot made headlines last year when it made racist and sexist remarks during a public chat.
Bard is not the only chatbot to have made mistakes.
Microsoft’s (MSFT) chatbot, Zo, has also been known to make errors.
In 2016, Zo made a racist remark during a chat.
Chatbots are still in their infancy and they are bound to make mistakes.
However,chatbots powered by AI technology are getting better and better at understanding natural language.
As they get better, we can expect chatbots to make fewer mistakes.
