News from the Financial Association on February 11 (edited by Bian Chun)Earlier this week, Google announced ChatGPT’s competing robot Bard, but Bard’s performance was a big disappointment and severely dragged down Alphabet’s stock price. This has also led to criticism of Google’s leadership, especially Sundar Pichai, known as “Brother Pichai” by company employees.
The media found thatGoogle employees recently voiced their thoughts on the company’s launch of Bard on the popular internal forum Memegen, calling the move “rushed,” “botched,” and “not Googlelike.”
While Google employees often poke fun at the company’s eccentricities and missteps on Memegen, their tone became more serious after Bard was released, even targeting Pichai directly.
For example, a post read, “Dear Sundar, Bard release and layoffs are hasty, clumsy and short-sighted, please re-think the long-term.” The post was liked by many Google employees.
Another employee raved about the post: “Sundall and management deserve a Perf NI (the lowest rating in the performance rating system). They are ridiculously short-sighted and un-Google in their pursuit of ‘Focus.'”
“Rushing Bard to market in a panic confirms what the market fears about us,” read another highly rated post. Attached is a picture of a bird covering its face.
Bard’s mistake weighs heavily on Alphabet stock
On Monday, Google announced that Bard had started an initial open beta. A day after that, on Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled its new AI-powered search engine, Bing, and its Edge browser. And at an event in Paris on Wednesday, more details about Bard were revealed. The AI battle between the two tech giants is raging.
Also during Wednesday’s promotion, Bard made a factual error in answering a question about the James Webb Space Telescope, fueling concerns that the tools weren’t ready to be integrated into search engines.
On the day Bard made a mistake, the stock price of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, fell more than 8% in intraday trading and closed down more than 7%, the largest daily drop since October 26 last year. Alphabet shares have tumbled more than 9 percent this week amid concerns that ChatGPT poses a threat to Google’s core search business.
Bard’s blunder seems to confirm what Google executives said late last year, and it also fully reflects Google’s uneasiness about ChatGPT’s aggressive approach.
A major player in artificial intelligence, Google was asked about its competitive advantage in AI last December as ChatGPT exploded into popularity. Executives responded at the time that the company’s reputation could be damaged if it moved too quickly on AI chat technology.