Google’s Bard Chatbot Spreads Misinformation in Its Twitter Debut: A Cautionary Tale

The unofficial debut of Google’s Bard chatbot raises concerns about the potential for increased misinformation. Recently, the company shared an advertisement showcasing Bard, a natural-language AI model that displayed inaccuracies regarding the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

In the ad, a short GIF illustrates a Q&A where Bard responds to the question, "What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old about?" Among its three suggestions, Bard claims, “JWST took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system. These distant worlds are called ‘exoplanets.’ Exo means ‘from outside.’” While the explanation of exoplanets is accurate, the assertion that JWST captured the first images is incorrect. This milestone is attributed to the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in 2004, as confirmed by NASA.

Bard is an experimental conversational AI service powered by LaMDA, designed to simplify complex topics and fuel curiosity. However, errors in a Twitter ad spotlight significant risks associated with launching natural-language chatbots. This scenario parallels CNET's choice to utilize an AI chatbot for writing financial advice articles, which were also fraught with inaccuracies.

Given that chatbots can confidently present misleading information, users lacking proper fact-checking may adopt false beliefs. In a world already challenged by misinformation, the premature release of such powerful technology—without reliable fact-checking—could lead to widespread confusion and misinformation.