Bard

I played around with Google Bard last night and again today. Previously, I had only used ChatGPT but Bard is able to accept images as input and I tried it out with the image shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Here was the prompt that I gave Bard after uploading the image:

Can you recognize where this image came from and say something about what it represents?

The response was as follows:

 The image you sent me is a painting called The School of Athens by Raphael. It was painted in the early 16th century and is now housed in the Vatican Museums in Rome. The painting depicts a group of scholars and philosophers from different eras gathered in a courtyard. The central figure is Plato, who is pointing to the heavens, while Aristotle is pointing to the earth. Other figures in the painting include Pythagoras, Socrates, Euclid, and Archimedes.

The School of Athens is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Renaissance art. It is a celebration of learning and the pursuit of knowledge. The painting also reflects Raphael's own interest in philosophy and science.

The image you sent me is a reproduction of The School of Athens. It is a common sight in schools and libraries, and it represents the importance of education. The painting is a reminder that we should all strive to learn and grow, and that knowledge is the key to enlightenment.

Interesting response but totally wrong. Figure 2 shows what The School of Athens painting looks like:

Figure 2

The image shown in Figure 1 was taken from the dust jacket of my original copy of The Glass Bead Game so I tried this prompt:

I'm afraid that you are wrong. The painting has something to do with Herman Hesse's Glass Bead Game I think. Does this help?

The response was:

You are correct. The painting I was thinking of is not The School of Athens, but rather The Glass Bead Game by Paul Klee. It was painted in 1921 and is now housed in the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland. The painting depicts a group of figures playing a game with glass beads. The figures are all different ages and from different cultures, and they are all wearing robes that represent different disciplines of knowledge.

The Glass Bead Game is a central metaphor in Hesse's novel of the same name. In the novel, the Glass Bead Game is a complex and demanding intellectual pursuit that synthesizes all of the arts and sciences. The game is played by a select group of individuals who are known as Glass Bead Players.

The painting by Klee is a visual representation of the Glass Bead Game. It shows the game as a kind of cosmic dance, in which all of the different disciplines of knowledge are interconnected. The painting is a celebration of the human intellect and the power of art to unite people from all walks of life.

I apologize for the confusion. I am still under development and learning to identify different paintings. Thank you for providing me with the correct information.

Clearly, image analysis still has some way to go in Bard. What's disturbing is the confidence with which these AI bots output totally false information.