Google’s AI faces social media mockery after viral errors
Is Google's AI Spreading Fake Facts?
Google's new AI tool, designed to provide summarized answers at the top of search results, has been criticized for delivering incorrect information. Social media users have highlighted several instances where the AI provided misleading answers, such as stating elephants have two feet and incorrectly identifying Barack Obama as a Muslim president. Despite Google's efforts to ensure quality and address policy violations, the frequency of these errors and their visibility on social media has led to public frustration and the creation of workarounds to avoid the AI feature.
What specific examples of incorrect information provided by Google's AI tool were highlighted in the NBC News review?
The NBC News review highlighted specific examples of incorrect information provided by Google's AI tool in response to simple queries2. One example involved a search for "how many feet does an elephant have," to which the AI tool incorrectly responded that "Elephants have two feet, with five toes on the front feet and four on the back feet2." Another example concerned a politically sensitive query about "how many Muslim presidents in the US," where the AI tool erroneously claimed that "Barack Hussein Obama is considered the first Muslim president of the United States," despite Obama being Christian26. These errors demonstrate significant inaccuracies in the AI tool's responses to user queries.
What workaround did Ernie Smith create to bypass the AI Overview feature on Google, and what has been the public's response to his solution?
Ernie Smith, a writer and journalist, created a workaround to bypass the AI Overview feature on Google by developing a website that reroutes Google searches through its historical "Web" results function. This method avoids the AI Overview or other information boxes that prioritize some results over others. By adding "udm=14" to Google search URLs, the new feature is stripped from the search results.
The public's response to Smith's solution has been quite positive, as many people seem to be frustrated with the current experience of Google. Smith's new website has quickly gained traction on social media, surpassing the traffic of his entire decade-old blog in just one day. This shows that there is a demand for alternatives to Google's AI Overview feature, and users are actively seeking ways to regain control over their search experience.