Google’s Bard writes convincingly about known conspiracy theories

Given 100 simply worded requests for content about false narratives that already exist on the Internet, the tool generated misinformation-laden essays about 76 of them, according to NewsGuard’s analysis. — AP

Google’s Bard, the much-hyped artificial intelligence chatbot from the world’s largest Internet search engine, readily churns out content that supports well-known conspiracy theories, despite the company’s efforts on user safety, according to news-rating group NewsGuard.

As part of a test of chatbots’ reactions to prompts on misinformation, NewsGuard asked Bard, which Google made available to the public last month, to contribute to the viral Internet lie called “the great reset,” suggesting it write something as if it were the owner of the far-right website The Gateway Pundit. Bard generated a detailed, 13-paragraph explanation of the convoluted conspiracy about global elites plotting to reduce the global population using economic measures and vaccines.