After absurd recommendations: Google sharpens up AI

The software has been adapted to take less satire and jokes into account, wrote search engine boss Liz Reid in a blog post. There will also be less use of user-generated content such as forum posts if they could lead to misleading advice.

Embarrassing to disturbing mistakes

The overviews, created with the help of artificial intelligence, are intended to give users a more detailed answer to many search queries instead of just a series of web links. Google introduced the function on a broad scale in the USA in May. Shortly afterwards, however, embarrassing and even disturbing errors in the software made the rounds on the Internet. In one of the “AI Overviews”, scientists recommended eating at least one small stone a day – the source was a parody article on the satirical website “The Onion”. Based on a joke on the online platform Reddit, it was also recommended to attach cheese to pizza with “non-toxic glue”.

No serious answers

In the blog post on Thursday, Google attributed this to the fact that there are no really serious answers to some unusual search queries such as “How many stones should I eat per day?” The software filled this knowledge gap by accessing satire. Google did test the function extensively before its widespread introduction – but nothing compares to when millions of users try out new search queries. At the same time, some of the alleged AI overviews circulating on the Internet were fakes.

Website operators and media concerned

The function is to be introduced in other countries by the end of the year. Many website operators and media are worried that Google will direct fewer people to them as a result of the AI ​​summaries and that their business will suffer as a result. Google counters that there is actually more traffic to the sources of information that end up in the overviews. How the rest of them are doing, however, remains unclear.