Why did Google's ChatGPT rival go wrong and are AI chatbots overhyped?

Google's unveiling of a rival to ChatGPT had an expensively embarrassing stumble on Wednesday when it emerged that promotional material showed the chatbot giving an incorrect response to a question. A video demo of the Google chatbot, Bard, contained a reply suggesting Nasa's James Webb space telescope was used to take the very first pictures of a planet outside the Earth's solar system, or exoplanets. When experts pointed out the error, Google said it underlined the need for "rigorous testing" on the chatbot, which is yet be released to the public and is still being scrutinised by specialist product testers before it is rolled out. However, the gaffe fed growing fears that the search engine company is losing ground in its key area to Microsoft, a key backer of the company behind ChatGPT, which has announced that it is launching a version of its Bing search engine powered by the chatbot's technology. Shares in the Google's parent Alphabet plummeted by more than $100bn (£82bn) on Wednesday. So what exactly went wrong with the Bard demo and what does it say about hopes for AI to revolutionise the search market?