[Edward64]

Pretty good article on the limitations (so far at least)

Google’s AI chatbot Bard makes factual error in first demo - The Verge

As Tremblay notes, a major problem for AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard is their tendency to confidently state incorrect information as fact. The systems frequently “hallucinate” — that is, make up information — because they are essentially autocomplete systems.

Rather than querying a database of proven facts to answer questions, they are trained on huge corpora of text and analyze patterns to determine which word follows the next in any given sentence. In other words, they are probabilistic, not deterministic — a trait that has led one prominent AI professor to label them “bullshit generators.”

Of course, the internet is already full of false and misleading information, but the issue is compounded by Microsoft and Google’s desire to use these tools as search engines. There, the chatbots’ answers take on the authority of a would-be all-knowing machine.

Microsoft, which demoed its new AI-powered Bing search engine yesterday, has tried to preempt these issues by placing liability on the user. “Bing is powered by AI, so surprises and mistakes are possible,” says the company’s disclaimer. “Make sure to check the facts, and share feedback so we can learn and improve!”