- Google is scaling back AI-generated answers after the widespread use of inappropriate answers.
- Last week, I made and ate a pizza out of glue, following instructions from a Google AI search.
- Am I a hero? Who knows?
I'm not one to casually say the H-word, but I can certainly say, “I'm a hero.”
On Thursday, Google announced in a blog post that it was scaling back the AI search results it rolled out last week, with results that were both dire and hilarious, such as results from Google AI Overviews that suggested eating a rock a day (seriously, but actually based on an article in The Onion), that Barack Obama was the first gay president, and that to stop the cheese from sliding off your pizza, you should add 1/8 cup of glue to your sauce.
Search results for Glue Pizza were traced back to a comment on the subreddit r/Pizza from a Reddit user known as “fucksmith,” who made an obvious joke.
Being the brave and genius that I am, naturally I decided to try making some Glue Pizza myself.
Liz Reid, head of Google search, wrote in a blog post on Thursday that the company will limit the use of satirical content in its AI-generated search results (for example, answers from The Onion will no longer appear), and will also limit the use of user-generated content in its AI-generated advice (Google reportedly pays $60 million a year for Reddit content, but will be more cautious about answers from Reddit).
There's been a lot of attention this past week about how terrible many of the AI-generated search results are, especially because they're so bizarre and hilarious. Was Google trying to curb its lofty ambitions for AI search just because some jokers at X were asking silly queries? Maybe.
Is it because Google took the feedback seriously, realized there were use cases they hadn't anticipated, and realized they needed to rebuild based on this new information? Probably.
Is it a combination of these two factors, where a few trolls gaming the system for laughs have revealed some serious flaws and dangers in showing AI in search results? Or is it not just a PR disaster for a week, but also a trigger for Google to seriously rethink the safety and actual use of its AI Overviews product? Probably.
But don't overlook one important factor here. myselfI actually ate group pizza. (It wasn't tasty, please do not Do this at home.
I want to believe that in my dreams, Google CEO Sundar Pichai saw a photo of me with my gaping mouth gobbling down PVA and cheese, fell to his knees and screamed, “What have I done?” I sacrificed my sense of taste and the equilibrium of microplastics in my bloodstream not for waste or for clicks, but to slow down the AI pressure rollers that are destroying everything we loved about the old internet.
The absurdity of these AI responses calls into question the whole concept of using AI in Google search results.
What does it mean to have these AI-generated results, the idea of ”let Google do your Google search,” rather than choosing the link that you think has the best answer based on your own judgment? Max Read writes: “I may be in the minority, but I personally prefer to look at a selection of results and use the brain that our ancestors evolved over hundreds of millions of years to determine context, tone, and intent.”
Similarly, New York Magazine's John Herman points out that humans have gotten pretty good at parsing Google search results on their own: “Part of the job of using Google is understanding — and realizing that you won't — encounter nonsense, scams, jokes, and ads on your way to finding what you're looking for. By trying to automate this job, Google has revealed, and perhaps discovered, how hard it is, and how alien its understanding of its own users has become.”
I don't think AI search results are necessarily a terrible idea and will never be good. I believe Google when they say that most people like their AI search results most of the time. I've had much the same experience.
The fact that Google released this with such an easily exploitable flaw? That's bad. But that they fixed it? That's good. And I'd like to think that my eating pizza with glue was part of the uproar that caused Google to act.
Please, please… no thanks. I'm just doing my job! As they say, not all heroes wear capes. Some just eat glue.
On February 28, Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider, along with 31 other media groups, filed a $2.3 billion lawsuit against Google in a Dutch court, alleging damages caused by the company's advertising practices.
