It’s laborious to belief Google’s new AI-powered search imaginative and prescient when it could actually’t even accurately summarize the small print of its personal merchandise.

At its Google I/O developer convention on Wednesday, Google laid out the muse for revamping its iconic search engine, which has adopted the identical primary method for years. The firm goals to power Google search up with conversational and generative AI — and, most significantly, put these responses earlier than conventional hyperlinks and every part else. For the most well-liked search engine on the earth, this can be a monumental change.

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The drawback with that method is that AI chatbots often make confident-sounding mistakes — and, true to kind, Google couldn’t even get the small print of its newest Google Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet merchandise precisely proper, together with the value. We used Google Bard for our exams, not Google Search, however with the identical AI ultimately underlying each, we expect the outcomes are value highlighting.

Google makes a daring selection when laying out its newest search imaginative and prescient: It places its AI outcomes proper on prime. Microsoft and its AI-powered Bing search engine additionally features a conversational AI-powered chat interface, however locations its AI in a small field to the best of conventional hyperlinks, at concerning the peak (and precedence) of the highest search end result. In sure circumstances, equivalent to asking each search engines like google for the specifications of the Google Pixel Fold, Bing contains an array of specs from a third-party Web website. In Google’s mockups, it doesn’t.

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Bing’s proper; Bard isn’t

On the recommendation of my editor, I requested each Google Bard and Bing Chat for the specs of each the Google Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet. Bard was far more verbose — however, sadly, additionally extra incorrect.

Both search engines like google, to be honest, returned largely correct outcomes. We even gave Bard the good thing about the doubt, asking it for the specs of, first, the “Google Fold” after which the “Google Pixel Fold.” But Bard nonetheless returned incorrect details about the outside show, reporting first that its outer 5.8-inch show had a 1080×2670 show and an interior 7.6-inch show of 1920×1080. It doesn’t; the outside show has a decision of 2092×1080 and an interior show of 2208×1840. (Both run at as much as 120Hz, one other truth Bard ignored.) When we requested it a second time, it didn’t even distinguish between the interior and outer show, merely stating that it has a 7.6-inch foldable show with a decision of 1920×1080.

(You can see the outcomes of our question beneath. You could have to open the pictures in a separate tab. Google lists the specifications of the Pixel Fold on its purchasing web page.)

Mark Hachman / IDG

Bard additionally waffled on the digicam specs, first reporting that the Pixel Fold’s entrance digicam was 8 megapixels, and its rear digicam was 48MP (major) / 12MP (ultrawide) / and 10MP (telephoto). It then determined that the entrance selfie digicam was 12MP, and the rear was 50MP/12MP/10MP. (The correct specifications are a 8MP selfie digicam and a 48MP/10.8MP/10.8MP rear digicam.)

Bard was at the least constant on the value, the battery dimension, the scale and the wi-fi capabilities, however couldn’t resolve whether or not the Fold runs Android 13 or the upcoming Android 14. (Google doesn’t say.)

Google additionally goofed when requested concerning the new Google Pixel Tablet. Its most vital error? The worth, which Bard listed as merely $599. In truth, based on Google, the bottom configuration is $499, a full $100 much less. (There is a $599 possibility, which will increase the bottom 128GB of storage to 256GB, however extra notably, a swathe of early Pixel Tablet rumors pegged it as that worth.) Bard additionally continued to have issues with the digicam specs, incorrectly characterizing the entrance and rear cameras as 8MP and a 13MP (major) and 5MP (ultrawide) rear digicam. The Pixel Tablet contains 8MP entrance and rear cameras, with no choices for an ultrawide.

Again, we’ve reproduced our queries beneath. You can examine them to the official Google Pixel Tablet specifications.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Bing, in the meantime, skated by reporting that the Pixel Fold has a “1080p” exterior display screen. Otherwise, although, it was totally factually appropriate on each Google units, when Google itself wasn’t.

Google is transferring to an up to date PaLM 2 large language model, with tighter integrations to different Google providers. Whether that offers Bard and the underlying Bard/Search AI higher accuracy is unknown. And we’d be remiss in not noting the next caveat:

“There are known limitations with generative AI and LLMs, and Search, even today, will not always get it right,” Elizabeth Reid, the Google common supervisor for search, wrote in a blog post. “We’re taking a responsible and deliberate approach to bringing new generative AI capabilities to Search. We’ve trained these models to uphold Search’s high bar for quality, and we will continue to make improvements over time.”

Still, the fundamental premise holds true: If Google needs to guide its search outcomes with AI-generated responses, it had higher make certain that these AI responses are completely appropriate. Right now, Google’s AI solutions aren’t.