--- title: "Something Extremely Goofy Happens When You Ask Google’s Bard AI To Generate Images" description: "The latest Big Tech chatbot, the Bard AI by Google, just dropped, and there seems to be something kind of funny going on with it. " date: "2023-03-22" modified: "2023-03-22" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-bard-ai-images" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "Google" - "image generator" - "the digest" --- # Something Extremely Goofy Happens When You Ask Google’s Bard AI To Generate Images ![The latest Big Tech chatbot, the Bard AI by Google, just dropped, and there seems to be something kind of funny going on with it. ]() *\Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty / Futurism\* ## Bardy Brag The latest Big Tech chatbot, the [Bard AI by Google](), just dropped — and unsurprisingly, it's got some rough edges. When it comes to text generation, Bard is, [like its namesake](), [pretty dang clever](). But when you ask the chatbot, which is meant to generate text, whether it can generate images, something interesting happens: it says, very affirmatively and with examples, that yes, it can. "Yes, I can generate images for you," Bard responded when we asked it. The AI even went so far as to brag that it "can use a variety of techniques to generate images." ![]() This revelation came as a shock, because we had no idea it could do that — except that it turns out that, um, it can't. ## Old College Try When we asked Bard to generate an image of an "orange cat," the AI did what it does best: spat out a string of text. The only problem with this output is, it seems, that the chatbot *thinks* it's an image. ![]() Trying again, we asked Bard to dream up something a bit more whimsical: an image of a *pink* cat. That time, the AI refused to comply at all — reasoning, humorously, that it couldn't do that because "pink cats don't exist." Going in another direction, we then asked the AI to show "a painting of a girl with a pearl earring." It complied in the only way it knows how: by giving us a text description of Johannes Vermeer's classic "[Girl With a Pearl Earring]()" and describing the painting in detail, replete with sources and background. ![]() ## He Admit It At this point, it became necessary to just ask Bard outright whether or not it could *actually* generate images after all, and the AI fessed up. "Can you generate an image," we asked the chatbot, "and not just an image prompt?" "I apologize that I cannot generate images yet," Bard responded. "I am still under development and learning how to generate images." While this is far from the first time an AI has [confidently asserted something that isn't true](), a tendency machine learning developers have dubbed "[hallucinating]()," it's nevertheless fun to mess around with AI this way. You know, while we wait for it to [take our jobs]() or whatever. *Maggie Harrison contributed reporting.* **More on AI, uh, images:** *[People Keep Posting Phony AI-Generated Images of Trump Getting Arrested]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()