Google parent Alphabet saw shares fall by 9 per cent after its first public launch of ChatGPT competitor Bard was an embarrassment.

Google revealed the chatbot on Monday, less than 24 hours before Microsoft announced it had implemented ChatGPT into its Bing search function.

“Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models,” explained Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet.

“It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills.”

However, when Bard actually attempted to explain those new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in front of news reporters in Paris, it got the answer wrong.

Bard explained how the James Webb telescope was used to take the first pictures of a planet outside the Earth’s solar system.

NASA disagreed, saying these images were actually taken by a different telescope.

Shares dropped 8.9 per cent after the error, with investors fast losing confidence in the much-touted technology. It marked the biggest one-day loss since October 26, and saw billions wiped from the company’s value.

A red-faced Google said this simply “highlights the importance of a rigorous testing process” which will ensure Bard’s answers “meet a high bar for quality, safety and groundedness in real-world information”.