Google is in a scramble to manually remove peculiar AI responses in its search results. The tech giant’s new AI Overview product has been generating some strange responses, such as advising users to put glue on their pizza or eat rocks. These bizarre answers have led to a flurry of memes on social media, and Google is now rushing to disable AI Overviews for specific searches as these memes get posted.
Despite being in beta testing for a year under the name Search Generative Experience, the AI Overview product has had a messy rollout. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has stated that the company served over a billion queries during the beta testing period and managed to reduce the cost of delivering AI answers by 80 percent. However, it seems that this optimization might have been implemented prematurely before the technology was fully ready.
The situation has led to criticism of Google, with one anonymous AI founder stating that the company, once known for cutting-edge, high-quality products, is now being mocked for low-quality output. Despite this, Google maintains that its AI Overview product largely provides high-quality information to users. Google spokesperson Meghann Farnsworth confirmed that the company is taking swift action to remove AI Overviews on certain queries where appropriate under their content policies. She also stated that some of the examples they’ve seen were uncommon queries or doctored examples that they couldn’t reproduce.
AI expert Gary Marcus believes that many AI companies are selling dreams that their technology will go from being 80 percent correct to 100 percent correct. He argues that achieving the initial 80 percent is relatively easy as it involves approximating a large amount of human data. However, the final 20 percent is extremely challenging and might require artificial general intelligence. This would involve reasoning like a human fact checker to determine the plausibility of a source or the legitimacy of the information.
The situation puts Google in a tough spot, especially as competitors like Bing and OpenAI are making strides in AI. Bing has already made significant progress with AI, and OpenAI is reportedly working on its own search engine.
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