Bum note

Sometimes it's best just to shut up. But stung by all the attention Microsoft was getting from its investment in runaway generative AI platform ChatGPT, Alphabet rushed out an announcement this week about its own offering – Bard AI.

There was even an advertisement on Twitter extolling its virtues and that's where the problems began; Bard is asked about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the discoveries it has been involved with. In its answer Bard claims JWST took the first photos of a planet outside of the solar system.

The problem, as  Grant Tremblay from the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics revealed, also on Twitter, was that those images where taken by a different telescope.

An otherwise small and quirky mishap rapidly turned into a short term calamity for shareholders as investors got wind of the problem via a Bloomberg report and shares fell more than 8 per cent, equivalent to more than $100bn in market capitalisation.

ChatGPT is not without its own problems, as Bloomberg notes, however there is particular sensitivity around the issue due to the centrality of Google search to Alphabet's financial health.

Google's response, no doubt through gritted teeth was that the issue "...highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process."

We asked ChatGPT, what happens when you suck a lemon? A full minute later it still hadn't answered. It finally responded, "An error occurred."

Perhaps it was being ironic.