• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'

2

Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026

3

Current price of silver as of Monday, June 22, 2026

1

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'

2

Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026

3

Current price of silver as of Monday, June 22, 2026
TechAI

A robot’s $100 billion error: Alphabet shares tank after its ChatGPT rival makes a mistake in its very first ad

By
Tristan Bove
Tristan Bove
Contributing Reporter
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Tristan Bove
Tristan Bove
Contributing Reporter
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 8, 2023, 3:42 PM ET
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar PichaiMateusz Wlodarczyk—NurPhoto/Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

The artificial intelligence wars are heating up, with tech companies large and small racing to outdo one another and get their A.I.-powered product to market. But the mistakes by the nascent technology are starting to pile up, and Google’s up-and-coming A.I.-powered chatbot has already cost the company $100 billion in market value.

OpenAI has a head start in the fight with its ChatGPT chatbot launched in November that uses A.I. to generate humanlike text. ChatGPT’s wide range of uses, status as the fastest-growing consumer app in history, and potential to disrupt internet searches has pushed rivals to throw out the slow and cautious strategy that has dominated A.I. research for years.

Microsoft, Google, and Chinese search giant Baidu are all moving fast on their A.I. products. Google is arguably the furthest along among the established companies, premiering its own A.I.-powered chatbot for testers on Monday. Google’s chatbot, Bard, is powered by LaMDA, the company’s own A.I.-fueled language learning model that is similar to the technology behind ChatGPT. 

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, wrote that technologies like LaMDA will eventually be integrated with Google’s search engine.

Bard will be released to the general public in a few weeks, Pichai wrote Monday, and it may be a good idea for Google to spend more time perfecting it before that happens. Pichai’s blog post featured a promotional video to exhibit Bard’s capabilities. In it, users asked Bard for help with day-to-day activities, including recipe ideas and how to plan a baby shower, as well as more technical questions like how to explain to a 9-year-old what the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered. 

But Bard underwhelmed audiences with inaccurate responses, including to the James Webb query. In that case, it responded that the telescope took the “very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system.” 

But the very first image of an exoplanet was captured by the Very Large Telescope, a ground-based array in Chile, in 2004 and confirmed as an exoplanet in 2005, according to NASA—long before James Webb’s 2021 launch. James Webb, however, is being used to identify and catalog exoplanets.

Reuters was first to report on Bard’s mistake, and Google’s shares took a hit as a result. Google shares fell nearly 8% on Wednesday afternoon in midday trading, to around $99 a share, down from $108 at market close Tuesday. Its market cap Wednesday was $1.27 trillion, down from $1.35 trillion last week. The error was discovered just before Google hosted an event in Paris to display more of Bard’s capabilities.

Bard’s error underscores “the importance of a rigorous testing process, something that we’re kicking off this week with our Trusted Tester program,” a Google spokesperson told Fortune, adding that the company is incorporating feedback to ensure Bard’s responses meet “a high bar for quality, safety, and groundedness in real-world information” before its wider public release.

To be sure, Bard is far from the only chatbot to be inaccurate. ChatGPT has succumbed to racial and gender biases in certain scenarios while also providing incorrect or confused information when asked about niche topics.

Update, Feb. 8, 2023: This article was updated with a comment from Google.

Learn how to navigate and strengthen trust in your business with The Trust Factor, a weekly newsletter examining what leaders need to succeed. Sign up here.
About the Author
By Tristan BoveContributing Reporter
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Fiona Fung, wearing a green blouse, speaks on stage with "Claude" written on the background.
Workplace Culturework culture
Anthropic engineering head says Claude Code made employees’ work a ‘lonely experience’—and it could hint at Big Tech’s bigger morale problem
By Sasha RogelbergJune 23, 2026
28 minutes ago
un
EnvironmentData centers
‘It is time to come clean’: UN Secretary General calls out AI companies on their climate impact
By Alexa St. John and The Associated PressJune 23, 2026
39 minutes ago
musk
North AmericaTesla
A Tesla on autopilot just killed a woman who was standing in her own living room
By Bernard Condon and The Associated PressJune 23, 2026
1 hour ago
Aidan Gomez with a blue background.
AIdata sovereignty
Renting AI from foreign providers is a national security risk, warns Cohere CEO
By Beatrice NolanJune 23, 2026
1 hour ago
SK hynix briefly tops Samsung as Korea’s most valuable company—and it’s reportedly eyeing a U.S. listing as soon as August
AsiaSouth Korea
SK hynix briefly tops Samsung as Korea’s most valuable company—and it’s reportedly eyeing a U.S. listing as soon as August
By Nicholas GordonJune 23, 2026
2 hours ago
brett
CommentaryManagement
Middle managers aren’t going extinct—they’re evolving into something more powerful
By Brett HurtJune 23, 2026
3 hours ago

Most Popular

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
Success
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
By Sydney LakeJune 21, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 22, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 22, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 22, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 22, 2026
1 day ago
The Fed is fed up with inflation and will bring down the hammer with a series of rate hikes this year, reversing earlier cuts, BofA says
Economy
The Fed is fed up with inflation and will bring down the hammer with a series of rate hikes this year, reversing earlier cuts, BofA says
By Jason MaJune 22, 2026
23 hours ago
By 7 a.m., Bank of America’s CEO has already read 5 newspapers, his email inbox, and hit the gym—he says if you’re late to meetings, you’re ‘selfish’
Success
By 7 a.m., Bank of America’s CEO has already read 5 newspapers, his email inbox, and hit the gym—he says if you’re late to meetings, you’re ‘selfish’
By Preston ForeJune 22, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of gold as of June 22, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of gold as of June 22, 2026
By Danny BakstJune 22, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.