Google criticized as AI Overview makes obvious errors, such as saying former President Obama is Muslim

It’s
been
less
than
two
weeks
since


Google
debuted
“AI
Overview”
in
Google
Search,
and
public
criticism
has
mounted
after
queries
have
returned
nonsensical
or
inaccurate
results
within
the
AI
feature
—
without
any
way
to
opt
out.

AI
Overview
shows
a
quick
summary
of
answers
to
search
questions
at
the
very
top
of
Google
Search.
For
example,
if
a
user
searches
for
the
best
way
to
clean
leather
boots,
the
results
page
may
display
an
“AI
Overview”
at
the
top
with
a
multistep
cleaning
process,
gleaned
from
information
it
synthesized
from
around
the
web.

But
social
media
users
have
shared
a
wide
range
of
screenshots
showing
the
AI
tool
giving
incorrect
and
controversial
responses.

Google,
Microsoft,
OpenAI
and
other
companies
are
at
the
helm
of
a generative
AI arms
race
as
companies
in
seemingly
every
industry
rush
to
add
AI-powered
chatbots
and
agents
to
avoid being
left
behind by
competitors.
The
market
is predicted
to top
$1
trillion in
revenue
within
a
decade.

Here
are
some
examples
of
errors
produced
by
AI
Overview,
according
to
screenshots
shared
by
users.

When
asked
how
many
Muslim
presidents
the
U.S.
has
had,
AI
Overview

responded,
“The
United
States
has
had
one
Muslim
president,
Barack
Hussein
Obama.”

When
a
user
searched
for
“cheese
not
sticking
to
pizza,”
the
feature

suggested
adding
“about
1/8
cup
of
nontoxic
glue
to
the
sauce.”
Social
media
users
found
an

11-year-old
Reddit
comment
that
seemed
to
be
the
source.

Attribution
can
also
be
a
problem
for
AI
Overview,
especially
in
attributing
inaccurate
information
to
medical
professionals
or
scientists.

For
instance,
when
asked,
“How
long
can
I
stare
at
the
sun
for
best
health,”
the
tool

said,
“According
to
WebMD,
scientists
say
that
staring
at
the
sun
for
5-15
minutes,
or
up
to
30
minutes
if
you
have
darker
skin,
is
generally
safe
and
provides
the
most
health
benefits.”

When
asked,
“How
many
rocks
should
I
eat
each
day,”
the
tool

said,
“According
to
UC
Berkeley
geologists,
people
should
eat
at
least
one
small
rock
a
day,”
going
on
to
list
the
vitamins
and
digestive
benefits.

The
tool
also
can
respond
inaccurately
to
simple
queries,
such
as

making
up
a
list
of
fruits
that
end
with
“um,”
or
saying
the
year
1919
was

20
years
ago.

When
asked
whether
or
not
Google
Search
violates
antitrust
law,
AI
Overview

said,
“Yes,
the
U.S.
Justice
Department
and
11
states
are
suing
Google
for
antitrust
violations.”

The
day
Google
rolled
out
AI
Overview
at
its
annual
Google
I/O
event,
the
company
said
it
also
plans
to
introduce
assistant-like
planning
capabilities
directly
within
search.
It
explained
that
users
will
be
able
to
search
for
something
like,
“Create
a
3-day
meal
plan
for
a
group
that’s
easy
to
prepare,”
and
they’d
get
a
starting
point
with
a
wide
range
of
recipes
from
across
the
web.

“The
vast
majority
of
AI
Overviews
provide
high
quality
information,
with
links
to
dig
deeper
on
the
web,”
a
Google
spokesperson
told
CNBC
in
a
statement.
“Many
of
the
examples
we’ve
seen
have
been
uncommon
queries,
and
we’ve
also
seen
examples
that
were
doctored
or
that
we
couldn’t
reproduce.”

The
spokesperson
said
AI
Overview
underwent
extensive
testing
before
launch
and
that
the
company
is
taking
“swift
action
where
appropriate
under
our
content
policies.”

The
news
follows
Google’s
high-profile
rollout
of
Gemini’s

image-generation
tool
in
February,
and
a

pause
that
same
month
after
comparable
issues.

The
tool
allowed
users
to
enter
prompts
to
create
an
image,
but
almost
immediately,
users
discovered
historical
inaccuracies
and
questionable
responses,
which
circulated
widely
on
social
media.

For
instance,
when
one
user
asked
Gemini
to
show
a
German
soldier
in
1943,
the
tool
depicted
a racially
diverse
set
of
soldiers wearing
German
military
uniforms
of
the
era,
according
to
screenshots
on
social
media
platform
X.

When
asked
for
a
“historically
accurate
depiction
of
a
medieval
British
king,”
the
model
generated
another
racially
diverse
set
of
images,
including
one
of
a
woman
ruler, screenshots showed.
Users
reported similar
outcomes when
they
asked
for
images
of
the
U.S.
founding
fathers,
an
18th-century
king
of
France,
a
German
couple
in
the
1800s
and
more.
The
model
showed
an
image
of
Asian
men
in
response
to
a
query
about
Google’s
own
founders,
users
reported.

Google
said
in
a
statement
at
the
time
that
it
was
working
to
fix
Gemini’s
image-generation
issues,
acknowledging
that
the
tool
was
“missing
the
mark.”
Soon
after,
the
company
announced
it
would
immediately
“pause
the
image
generation
of
people”
and
“re-release
an
improved
version
soon.”

In
February,
Google
DeepMind
CEO
Demis
Hassabis
said
Google
planned
to
relaunch
its
image-generation
AI
tool
in
the
next
“few
weeks,”
but
it
has
not
yet
rolled
out
again.

The
problems
with
Gemini’s
image-generation
outputs
reignited
a
debate
within
the
AI
industry,
with
some
groups
calling
Gemini
too
“woke,”
or
left-leaning,
and
others
saying
that
the
company
didn’t
sufficiently
invest
in
the
right
forms
of
AI
ethics.
Google
came
under
fire
in
2020
and
2021
for ousting
the
co-leads of
its
AI
ethics
group
after
they
published
a
research
paper
critical
of
certain
risks
of
such
AI
models
and
then
later
reorganizing
the
group’s
structure.

In
2023,
Sundar Pichai,
CEO
of
Google’s
parent
company,
Alphabet,
was
criticized
by
some
employees
for
the
company’s botched
and
“rushed”
rollout
of
Bard,
which
followed
the
viral
spread
of
ChatGPT.

Correction:
This
article
has
been
updated
to
reflect
the
correct
name
of
Google’s
AI
Overview.
Also,
an
earlier
version
of
this
article
included
a
link
to
a
screenshot
that
Google
later
confirmed
was
doctored.