In a significant blow, Google's parent company witnessed a staggering loss exceeding $70 billion in market value during a solitary trading session. The plunge followed an unsettling incident involving its "Gemini AI Woke" chatbot, which stirred apprehensions among investors regarding the efficacy of the highly promoted AI tool.

According to a report from the NY Post, Alphabet's shares experienced a decline of 4.4% on the first day of trading for the week, closing at $138.75. Despite this drop, Google's parent company witnessed a slight uptick in its stock value during premarket trading.

Concerns are mounting regarding the reliability of Google's AI technology following a controversy involving its Gemini AI Woke chatbot's mishandling of images. The issue arose when Google was forced to suspend the image creation feature of its Gemini chatbot.

The tool was found to be generating images that were factually and historically inaccurate. Examples included depictions of Black Vikings, female NHL players, "diverse" versions of America's Founding Fathers, and even an Asian woman dressed in a Nazi-era German soldier's uniform.

In a note to investors, analyst Ben Reitzes from Melius Research cautioned that the unusual behaviour of the chatbot could amplify public concerns about Google's credibility as a source for AI technology. Reitzes emphasized that changes in search behavior, driven by new AI-integrated features, are imminent.

According to Bloomberg, Reitzes stated, "This 'once in a generation' change by itself creates opportunities for competitors, but even more if a meaningful portion of users grow concerned about Google's hallucinations and bias."

The stock drop coincided with an announcement from Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, a prominent figure in the company's AI leadership, acknowledging that Gemini's image tool would be offline for "a few weeks" to address the problem.

Hassabis stated, "We have taken the feature offline while we fix that. We are hoping to have that back online very shortly in the next couple of weeks, few weeks." Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday, Hassabis mentioned that the tool was not "working the way we intended."

Critics have raised concerns that the unusual behavior exhibited by Google Gemini may imply that it received politically biased "training" from the company's AI experts. These concerns gained momentum last week when politically charged tweets attributed to Google Gemini's product lead Jack Krawczyk resurfaced.

In these older posts, which garnered attention on social media platforms, Krawczyk reportedly commented on issues such as "white privilege" and "egregious racism" in America.

Image source: NY Post