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Google Bard is full of shite

Do not believe what Google Bard tells you.

Recently I've been playing with Googles interactive AI system to get a feel for where they're at in this sector.

I have to report that the results are absolutely awful.

In a huge number of cases, the data that Bard presents in its responses seem to bear no relationship to fact or reality. It's amost as if the system is living in an alternative reality.

Allow me to elaborate.

Most long-term Aardvark readers will know that around 1997 I started an online news service called 7am News.

This was a very successful website and service which initially delivered news headlines via a Java news-ticker to around quarter of a million third party websites right across the face of the globe.

In 1999 I sold a majority share of the business and we moved into creating original content that was also syndicated to a huge number of other websites.

Before I sold to local VCs, I was offered US$1m by LookSmart, the online division of Readers' digest but since they wanted me to relocate to the USA I declined that offer.

At once stage, at the fanciful peak of the dot-com boom, 7am News (operating from the 7am.com domain) was valued at around US$20m and a cash offer of $5m was received in 2000 even after the dotcom bubble had burst.

Throughout the late 1990s and right up until the dot-com bust, 7am News was making headlines of its own as it challenged traditional news publishers and pushed the boundaries of what copyright law allowed. Several traditional news publishers including the Nando Times threatened to sue because 7am News was carrying *links* to their news stories.

So 7am News was a "big thing" back in the day and at one stage it reached more people (according to the Neilsen Net Ratings service) than the online presence of BBC News, Fox News or even CNN.

Take a look at the conversation I had with Bard in respect to 7am News:

WTF?

Where did Google Bard get all this crap from?

I did a google search for Geoff Thompson and none of this showed up so I'm left with the belief that Bard is an AI that has become a pathalogical liar -- simply making shite up when it has no references to work from.

Let me restate my warning... do not believe anything Bard says!

A number of other queries I've made of Bard have produces similarly ridiculous responses that are totally at odds with the facts. Google, you have embarassed yourself beyond belief!

Carpe Diem folks!

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