Search for Timaru Hospital and you’ll see the phone number for Sopheze Coffee Lounge.
photograph: Google Maps / Screenshot
The phone in Timaru Cafe keeps ringing, but unfortunately many people aren’t looking for top-notch toast, they’re looking for a doctor.
Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) tool was providing the phone number for Sophie’s Coffee Lounge when people searched for Timaru Hospital.
Sophie’s Coffee Lounge manager Vanessa Keene said the problems started about six weeks ago.
Cafe staff have noticed a significant increase in dropped calls and errors.
“I’ve had people say, ‘Sorry, that’s the wrong number,’ and hang up on me, or I’ve had people call me asking to see a radiologist. Yesterday, I had someone who wanted to confirm their appointment with me,” Keene said.
“We get 15 to 20 calls a day.”
It took several weeks to figure out the problem, she said.
“Then it clicked…I said to this woman on the phone, ‘Where did you find this number?'” And she said, “Google, I Googled Timaru Hospital and this came up.” I asked her to send me a screenshot and sent it to the local health board last week. ”
Searching for “Timaru Hospital” seemed to bring up the correct number, but searching for “Timaru Hospital phone number” connected me directly to Sophie’s.
While the frequent phone calls were an unnecessary disruption, Keene said she also worried that dialing the wrong number when she needed to contact the hospital would add to her stress.
The New Zealand Department of Health – South Canterbury posted on social media on Monday to alert people to the problem and asked Google to resolve the issue.
Andrew Rensen, senior lecturer in AI at the University of Victoria, said it was common for AI overviews to contain errors.
“In some cases, it’s because when Google combs through these websites and discards them, its algorithms, its AI models, confuse the two pieces of information a little bit or make them mismatched. Sometimes you get what we call hallucinations, where the models make things up,” Rensen said.
“It’s a bit strange, but perhaps these phone numbers are listed in similar places, such as the Timaru website or community pages, and the model doesn’t match that association.”
He said this was a reminder to be careful with AI overviews.
“If you look at the AI summary, you’ll see in the summary that there are links to Ministry of Health pages. If you click on those pages, you’ll be taken to, for example, a Facebook page or a Ministry of Health page in Timaru. If you click on those pages, you’ll see a number of their official websites,” Mr Rensen said.
“It’s a great reminder that summaries are often wrong, and it even says that at the end.”
Correcting errors wasn’t always easy either.
“These big tech companies tend to be very difficult to contact regarding these kinds of errors. Frankly, they don’t really worry about it. In some cases, the best way to get a change would be to have someone like RNZ publish it, so maybe Google will take note and adjust,” he said.
Google’s website may have a contact form, but it may just wait for the contact information to update itself, he said.
Google said in an email response that the issue has now been fixed.
Google added that people may vote against inaccurate information.
Rachel Mills, director of operations for the New Zealand Health Authority’s South Canterbury Group, said online information was regularly reviewed to ensure it was accurate and people were encouraged to use official health websites.
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