Google recently made news when it unveiled Bard, an AI-powered chatbot. Bard made a factual inaccuracy in its very first demo, which was picked up on and corrected. Additionally, a presenter at Google’s press conference in Paris was unable to continue with the presentation since the phone had been lost.
Following the two instances, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, had its market worth decline by $100 billion. And it now appears that Google staff members are unhappy with how the Bard announcement was handled, describing it as “rushed, bungled, and un-Googley.”
Tide turning for Sundar Pichai
Pichai has been a favourite among the senior engineers and managers at Google for a long time, even before he was appointed as the CEO. However, the tide seems to be turning. As per a CNBC report, several Google employees are criticizing CEO Sundar Pichai for the way the AI chatbot Bard announcement was handled.
The report also showcased a number of posts and memes from Google’s internal forum Memegen that depict staff discussing the Bard announcement.
According to the report, the employees were complaining that the release was “rushed, bungled, and un-Googley.” The report also mentions how employees are calling out the company’s leadership, ‘most notably the CEO Sundar Pichai’.
As per CNBC, the internal forum, which is usually a positive space full of fun and games, took a ‘serious tone’ this week with employees feeling ‘dissatisfied and embarrassed’ at the way the Bard announcement was handled.
The fact that Google had to terminate 12,000 people under Pichai’s watch in one of the biggest layoffs in the company’s history, also doesn’t help his case.
Bard falling flat on its face
A factual blunder it made in an advertisement for the latest AI chatbot Google Bard made headlines. In the Twitter commercial released by Google, Bard is prompted to list a few fresh findings made by the James Webb Space Telescope. The first images of a planet outside of our solar system were captured by the telescope, as Bard points out in one of its points in response.
“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,” Bard answered. As per NASA, the first image of an exoplanet was taken in the year 2004.
Google’s Paris press conference fiasco
When Google’s eagerly anticipated press conference in Paris was taking place, the flaw in the company’s demo film was pointed out. A presenter at the live-streamed event entered the stage to demonstrate the new Lens function.
The sample phone, however, wasn’t there, thus the presenter was unable to continue with the presentation. The incident made some wonder if Google is really losing sleep about the new participants in the market, even if the speaker handled it as gracefully as possible. Additionally, Google later removed the event footage.
The final nail in the coffin: Microsoft Bing + ChatGPT
The AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, which seeks to fundamentally alter how users browse the internet, has long been said to be giving Google nightmares. Google unveiled Bard in an effort to take against ChatGPT.
However, it is not just ChatGPT that is a major concern for Google right now. Microsoft showcased the all-new Bing which integrates a higher and better version of ChatGPT that can actually browse the internet.
And from the demo, it is evident that as far as search queries are concerned, ChatGPT-enabled-Bing is on a completely different level. Google does not have an answer to what the new and updated Bing and it seems highly unlikely that they will have an answer anytime soon.
