After Google’s AI-powered chatbot Bard committed a factual error in a promotional video, Google’s parent company Alphabet “lost $100 billion in market value,” NPR reported Thursday morning:
“Social media users quickly pointed out that the company could’ve fact-checked the exoplanet claim by, well, Googling it.”The ad aired just hours before Google’s senior executives touted Bard as the future of the company at a launch event in Paris. By Wednesday, Alphabet shares had slid as much as 9% during trading hours, balancing out by the day’s close.
Meanwhile, shares for Microsoft, Google’s rival, rose by 3%….
Google did not respond to NPR’s request for comment. In a Monday blog post, CEO Sundar Pichai said Bard will be available exclusively to “trusted testers” before releasing the engine publicly in the coming weeks.
NPR published its article after Alphabet’s stock had fallen roughly $6.77 on Wednesday — a drop of about 6.3%. But by Friday it had dropped another 5.4%, for a three-day drop of around 11.5%.
