Google’s AI overhaul sparks misinformation chaos: Parmy Olson

Google's new AI Overview feature is causing chaos with incorrect and sometimes dangerous advice, like suggesting glue for pizza or calling a python a mammal. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai faces a dilemma as Google's once-reliable search service becomes a source of misinformation. Despite assurances that errors are rare, the frequent AI blunders are damaging Google's reputation. As the tech industry grapples with AI's reliability, even Elon Musk avoids using such tools in his ventures. Pichai must consider pausing the AI feature to restore trust and functionality.

Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.

By Parmy Olson

For years, to "google" meant to tap the web's prodigious data. Today it means wading through ads, spam and, most recently, wildly inaccurate AI answers. The new AI Overview feature rolled out by Google over the last week has led to a flurry of errors that must have Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai cringing. When asked about cheese sliding off pizza, it recodmmended a user apply glue. It suggested to another that a python was a mammal.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___