Google Bard

Report: Googlers say Bard AI is ‘useless,’ ethics teams told ‘not to get in the way’

Ben Schoon | Apr 21 2023 - 8:23 am PT

Google’s Bard AI arrived late to the game after OpenAI’s ChatGPT took the world by storm and had its tech quickly integrated into Microsoft Bing and other products. Now, a new report cites Google employees who feel that the company’s rush to deliver on AI has led to ignoring ethics concerns, all while Bard itself is considered “worse than useless.”

Bloomberg this week interviewed 18 Google employees, current and/or former, who had interaction with Bard, as well as sharing findings from internal documentation relating to Bard.

Apparently, Google’s request for employees to share feedback on Bard ahead of its public launch was mostly ignored. This includes strong feedback where Bard was called “cringe-worthy” and “a pathological liar” by employees. Another piece of feedback directly said that Google should not launch Bard, saying:

Bard is worse than useless: please do not launch

One employee shared an experience with Bard prior to its launch where the AI was prompted to give instructions on how to land a plane, but “regularly” gave instructions that would lead to a crash. Another experience saw a question on scuba instructions, with the Googler asking saying that the instructions given “would likely result in serious injury or death.”

But, perhaps most worryingly, is where Bard has impacted ethics concerns. Bloomberg says that Google teams working on AI ethics has been “disempowered and demoralized” and have been “told not to get in the way or to try to kill any of the generative AI tools in development.” In response, a Google spokesperson said:

We are continuing to invest in the teams that work on applying our AI Principles to our technology

To Google’s credit, Bard’s user-facing product does still outwardly say that it may display “inaccurate” information in contrast to its competitors. But, behind the scenes, Google AI governance lead Jen Gennai reportedly overruled a risk evaluation that found Bard was not ready for launch, though Gennai said it wasn’t solely her decision.