Google made a big announcement on Monday about its latest AI innovation bard. It is pitted against OpenAI’s popular language model ChatGPT. Bard was due to become widely publicly available in the coming weeks. However, it looks like The Bard’s debut hasn’t gone according to plan.
Not to be a ~well, actually~ jerk, and I'm sure Bard will be impressive, but for the record: JWST did not take "the very first image of a planet outside our solar system".
— Grant Tremblay (@astrogrant) February 7, 2023
the first image was instead done by Chauvin et al. (2004) with the VLT/NACO using adaptive optics. https://t.co/bSBb5TOeUW pic.twitter.com/KnrZ1SSz7h
In a demo video shared by Google demonstrating Bard’s capabilities, the AI chatbot was asked a question about the James Webb Space Telescope. A GIF shared by Google shows Bard being asked the question: “What new discovery from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old?”
Bard presented the answer in three bullet points, one of which read that the telescope had taken the first pictures of a planet outside our solar system. However, this information was incorrect and was quickly pointed out by several astronomers on Twitter.
Astrophysicist Grant Tremblay tweeted, “Well not to be, really ~shocked, and I’m sure Bard will be impressive, but for the record: JWST didn’t take ‘the first image of a planet outside our solar system’.” Having said that the first picture was done by Chauvin et al in 2004 with the VLT/NACO using adaptive optics.
Bruce McIntosh, director of the University of California Observatories at UC Santa Cruz, also pointed out the mistake. “Speaking as the person who first imaged an exoplanet 14 years before JWST was launched, looks like you should find a better example,” he wrote in a tweet.
In the first instance, Bard’s mistake cost Google about $100 billion. Shares of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, plummeted as it lost $100 billion in market value. Reuters reported that the company’s shares fell 8 percent, or $8.59 per share, to $99.05.
Bard’s factual error has raised concern among AI experts. This underscores the biggest concern around AI is how confidently these chatbots give wrong answers.
Google has responded to the mistake, saying it points to the importance of a thorough testing process. “This highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process, which we are launching this week with our Trusted Testers program,” a Google spokesperson told the news agency. “We will combine external feedback with our own internal testing to ensure that Bard’s responses meet a high bar for quality, safety and groundedness in real-world information.”