Google’s $100B Mistake -- And How To Avoid It

Artificial intelligence is an awesome tool -- if you recognize its limitations and work around them. Google didn’t. And it paid dearly.

As you may have read, Google executives gathered on Feb. 7 to tout Bard, what’s known as a "generative AI," a la the more famous ChatGPT, as the future of the company. The problem: Google had launched an ad that morning bragging about Bard’s ability to answer questions in ways that "can spark a child’s imagination about the infinite wonders of the universe."

To demonstrate, the ad showed Bard being prompted with the question, "What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old about?"--and then completely fabricating an answer.

Bard’s responses included the claim that the telescope took the very first pictures of "exoplanets," or planets outside of earth’s solar system, which were, in fact, first photographed almost two decades ago. Oops.

The obvious error on such a high-profile effort knocked $100 billion off the market value of Alphabet (Google’s parent) the next day, and the stock has continued sliding, losing roughly $100 billion more of market value since then.