Alphabet, the parent company of Google, lost $100 billion in market value on Wednesday after its new chatbot Bard appeared to have responded inaccurately to a question in a promotional video. The Nasdaq-listed company closed at$99.37, down by 7.68%.
Reuters was the first to point out an error in Google’s advertisement for Bard, which debuted on Monday, about which satellite first took pictures of a planet outside Earth’s solar system.
Since November, ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, has been wooing users. It became the consumer application with the fastest growth in January after reaching an estimated 100 million monthly active users.
“This is a hiccup here, and they’re severely punishing the stock for it, which is justified because obviously everybody is pretty excited to see what Google’s going to counter with Microsoft coming out with a pretty decent product,” said Dennis Dick, founder and market structure analyst at Triple D Trading.
Microsoft, which has made a $10 billion investment in the AI company, recently demonstrated a new version of its Edge browser with ChatGPT-like features and an AI chatbot available in the sidebar. Additionally, ChatGPT features have been added to the company’s Bing search engine. Users must join a waitlist to access the “new” Bing. However, it currently offers a limited experience.
After ChatGPT achieved colossal success, Google entered the AI race to beat with Bard. On Monday, unveiling the chatbot, CEO Sundar Pichai had written in a blog post, “Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity.”
