Google employees criticize AI announcement Bard

On February 6, 2023, Google released a short GIF video of Bard via Twitter, promising that the software would help simplify complex topics. However, the video made a factual error. Shown earlier this week, the response to OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT called "Bard" was supposed to explain the discoveries of the James Webb telescope to a child. However, the AI's response was technically incorrect, with Bard listing three points, the third of which is simply wrong. Namely, the JWST is not the first telescope that could take pictures of a planet outside our solar system, as AI claims. That was, in fact, the VLT/NACO, which in 2004 was able to image an exoplanet 230 light-years away. An astrophysicist also noted this on Twitter.

Google used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as an example for Bard because the AI chatbot ChatGPT, which is supported by Microsoft, was only trained until the end of 2021, while the JWST did not become operational until mid-2022. It is ironic that when asked "What is the first image of an exoplanet?" the normal Google search engine returns the correct answer. Perhaps the AI was misled by NASA press releases into its incorrect answer, since the JWST only detected its first exoplanet, rather than photographing it for the first time.

Google's share price drops

As a result, Google's stock price dropped. It seems that Google wanted to preempt Microsoft with this action, which a day later introduced its Bing search engine, which is supported by ChatGPT. According to the CNBC report, the presenter at Google's event on Wednesday even forgot the smartphone he was using to demonstrate one of the Bard features.

First employee layoffs, then Bard announcement

According to a report by CNBC, some Google employees are calling the launch of the AI chatbot rushed and botched in internal forums. One user wrote in a frequently shared internal post to Google CEO Sundar Pichai that the Bard launch and layoffs were shortsighted and botched. Google plans to lay off 12,000 employees. Not surprisingly, the sequence of mass layoffs at Google and the rushed Bard announcement in particular has drawn criticism.

According to media reports, Pichai and Jeff Dean, head of the AI division, expressed concerns about a premature release of an AI tool during a December 2022 staff meeting, saying it could pose a reputational risk. Nevertheless, Google seems to have become nervous after the success of ChatGPT and announced its own chatbot without giving an exact date for availability.

There was no statement from Google on the topic, according to the report.