AI Might Not Be The Answer For Your Homework Yet: Google Bard Gives This Wrong Answer At Launch

Two tech giants are betting on the artificial intelligence sector, and it appears Microsoft Corporation MSFT may have the advantage this week with an investment in the market leader and Google struggling at its launch.

What Happened: ChatGPT is one of the largest AI chatbots that gives answers to users. The unit, which is owned by OpenAI, is part of a recent $10-billion investment by Microsoft.

Microsoft plans to integrate ChatGPT into its Bing search engine, which has struggled to gain market share over market leader Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL.

Not to be outdone, Google is investing in AI companies and announced the introduction of Bard, a language model for dialogue applications, this week. The company said Bard will draw on information from the web and give high-quality responses.

Google showed off its chatbot Bard at a launch event Wednesday, highlighting how it can provide text summaries of search results to questions.

In a demonstration posted by Google, Bard gave an incorrect answer, which could spark some debate on the chatbot's accuracy. 

A user asked the question, “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old about?”

One of the answers given was that the James Webb Space Telescope took the “very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system,” according to The Telegraph.

The answer was not factually correct, as the first picture taken of a planet outside the solar system was done by the Very Large Telescope in Chile in 2004.

Bard is an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA. Built using our large language models and drawing on information from the web, it’s a launchpad for curiosity and can help simplify complex topics → https://t.co/fSp531xKy3 pic.twitter.com/JecHXVmt8l

— Google (@Google) February 6, 2023

Related Link: ChatGPT Isn't At All Salty About Google Unveiling Rival AI

Why It’s Important: OpenAI uses content from web pages, Wikipedia and English-language books, according to The Telegraph. Google has not stated how Bard was trained to give answers.

“AI is the most profound technology we are working on today. Whether it’s helping doctors detect diseases earlier or enabling people to access information in their own language, AI helps people, businesses and communities unlock their potential,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said.

As AI chatbots become more prevalent, there are concerns about the accuracy of the information they provide. 

Some schools have banned the use of chatbots that could be used for cheating, while other experts see chatbots becoming similar to a calculator being used as a tool for math.

ChatGPT has passed several major tests including the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam and the Bar Exam.

The race to take a lead in the AI-generated search results could become highly competitive between Microsoft and Google — and the tech giants could stumble along the way. 

GOOG Price Action: Shares of Alphabet are down 6% to $101.30 on Wednesday.

Read Next: Look Out Google, Microsoft Is Coming For Search Share

Photo courtesy of Google.