Google AI insists it's 2024, not 2025
What's the story
Google's artificial intelligence (AI) has been caught in a rather embarrassing blunder once again. The tech giant's AI Overviews, which are meant to provide quick answers to user queries, have been incorrectly stating that the current year is still 2024. This bizarre error was highlighted in several Reddit posts and confirmed by Wired as well in their own testing.
Response variations
AI Overviews' incorrect responses
When asked about the current year, Google's AI Overviews gave three different answers. The first one was "No, it is not 2025." The second response said "According to the provided information, for some locations it might be 2025, but not everywhere on Earth." The third one claimed that while the current year is 2024 in most parts of the world, it's already 2025 in certain regions like Kiribati, New Zealand, and some parts of Russia and Australia.
Official statement
Google's response to the AI blunder
Responding to the AI error, a Google spokesperson said, "As with all Search features, we rigorously make improvements and use examples like this to update our systems." Meghann Farnsworth further added that "the vast majority of AI Overviews provide helpful, factual information and we're actively working on an update to address this type of issue."
Acknowledgment
Liz Reid's admission on AI overviews errors
After the initial rollout of AI Overviews, Liz Reid, who leads Search at Google, admitted in a blog post that the company had made mistakes. She wrote, "There's nothing quite like having millions of people using the feature with many novel searches. We've also seen nonsensical new searches, seemingly aimed at producing erroneous results."
New feature
AI Mode: Google's latest software launch
At Google's I/O developer conference earlier this month, the company launched AI Mode. This chatbot-style version of Google Search is designed for longer queries and is available for all users in the United States. Interestingly, when asked about the current year, AI Mode gave the correct answer on its first try.