In a recent incident, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, suffered a massive market value loss of over $100 billion due to an error in the debut advertisement of its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Bard. The announcement claimed that Bard would answer complex questions accurately, but its response to a prompt about the first satellite that took pictures of an exoplanet was incorrect.

This blunder was spotted just hours before the launch event for Bard in Paris, which further exacerbated the negative impact on Alphabet’s stock price. Analysts attributed this sharp drop in market value to the lack of details provided by Google’s AI search event, which failed to demonstrate how it would counter Microsoft’s ChatGPT challenge.

This incident highlights the importance of rigorous testing and quality assurance processes in developing and launching AI-powered products. Google acknowledged the error and stated that it would implement a Trusted Tester program to combine external feedback with internal testing to ensure Bard’s responses meet high quality, safety, and real-world information standards.

The market value loss suffered by Alphabet serves as a reminder that AI technology is not infallible and can have significant consequences for businesses and their stakeholders. As AI continues to shape the way we interact with information, companies must prioritize the development of robust testing and quality assurance processes to avoid costly errors and reputational damage.

Hence, Real Research, an online survey app, launched a survey on Google losing $100 billion in an AI Chatbot error to gather public perceptions of the future of artificial intelligence.

Key Points:

  • 81.56% are aware of Google’s loss of $100 billion AI error
  • 31.29% predict that Microsoft’s Bing AI would likely lead the AI chatbot platform
  • 26.52% highly believe that Google’s AI will eventually succeed

This insight focuses on Google’s loss of $100 billion AI error due to Google’s AI chatbot mishap, where Alphabet Inc. faced a significant loss in shares worth $100B due to a factual error made by its new AI-based chatbot, Bard. The insight also includes a survey conducted to determine the awareness of this incident among the target audience.

A survey was conducted to determine the awareness of this incident among the target audience. Out of the total respondents, 82% were aware of the incident, and 18% were not. This indicates that the incident has gained considerable attention among the target audience.

When the respondents were asked for their opinion on the loss of the $100B mistake, results revealed that 8% believed that the $100B mistake was a significant financial loss for Alphabet. Meanwhile, 10% of the respondents think the incident may have damaged Google’s reputation. Another 8% of the respondents expressed their opinion that this mistake would have a long-term impact on Alphabet’s performance.

Additionally, 8% of the respondents stated that Alphabet could not make such factual errors in the final stages of development. Lastly, 7% of the respondents indicated that there are further chances of investors pulling out due to this mistake.

Could the Incident Have Been Avoided?

According to figure 1, the results indicated that a majority (34%) stated the incident could definitely have been avoided, 38% stated probably, 15% stated probably not, 4% stated definitely not, and 8% stated unsure.

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Figure 1: Do you think the situation could have been avoided?

Furthermore, Microsoft’s Bing AI has gained a significant advantage over Google’s Bard and other AI chatbot platforms in the race to become a leading provider of AI chatbot services. This is due to the strategic partnership that Bing has formed with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a trending chatbot platform that is designed to generate faster and more accurate search results.

AI Chatbot Showdown: Microsoft’s Bing Takes on Google’s Bard

While Google has been struggling to develop an effective chatbot platform, Bing has capitalized on the power of ChatGPT to provide more advanced and reliable search results for its users. With 31% of respondents in the survey indicating that they believe Microsoft’s Bing AI is likely to become the leading AI chatbot platform, it is clear that this partnership has helped to cement Bing’s position as a strong contender in the AI market.

Despite these findings, 28% of survey respondents were unsure which AI chatbot platform would emerge as the leader, and 17% believed other platforms could also make significant progress in this field. As the race to develop the most effective AI chatbot platform continues, it remains to be seen which platform will ultimately come out on top.

Google’s Loss of $100 Billion AI Error

When asked what steps Alphabet should have taken to ensure that the chatbot platform was ready before promotion, respondents’ responses revealed that the majority (17%) believed the company should have planned risk and contingency strategies better. Another 17% believed Alphabet should have been more open about AI’s limitations and challenges.

In addition, 16% said Alphabet should have spent more on training to produce more accurate and timely resources, 13% said Alphabet should have spent more on research and analysis, 12% said to make sure the platform was tested numerous times, and 10% said to make sure the response was fact-checked.

Furthermore, the following figure revealed that 26% of respondents said that Google would eventually succeed in developing an effective AI-based chatbot, followed by 33% somewhat likely, 21% somewhat unlikely, 9% highly unlikely, and 10% unsure.

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Figure 2: Would Google succeed in developing an effective chat AI-based chatbot?

Lastly, the question posed is whether the mishap with Google’s loss of $100 billion AI error has affected people’s trust in the reliability of information generated from AI-based chatbots. According to a recent survey, 28% of respondents consider information from AI chatbots to be highly reliable, while 35% find it somewhat reliable.

On the other hand, 23% view it as somewhat unreliable, and 5% perceive it to be highly unreliable. Meanwhile, 9% are unsure whether they can trust information from AI chatbots or not.

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Figure 3: Do respondents find the AI-generated information reliable?

Methodology

Survey TitleSurvey On Google Losing $100 Billion in an AI Chatbot Error
DurationFebruary 17, 2023- February 24, 2023
Number of Participants10,000
DemographicsMales and females, aged 21 to 99
Participating Countries Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, China (Hong Kong) China (Macao), China (Taiwan), Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greanada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Maldives, Maluritania, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar [Burma], Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.