I’ve coated Google’s AI Overviews since its messy rollout final yr, when screenshots of absurdly incorrect solutions began popping up on the prime of search outcomes and going viral on social media. Nonetheless, after I first noticed photos of AI Overviews confidently saying that it is nonetheless 2024 in Reddit posts at the moment, I assumed they could be altered screenshots. I imply, over a billion Google customers at present see the AI-generated outcomes each month. Absolutely, such an apparent error would have been caught and patched by now?
I used to be incorrect. Repeating the immediate “is it 2025” verbatim thrice gave me three completely different AI Overview outcomes, but the primary sentence was the identical in every outcome: “No, it isn’t 2025.” The faulty outcomes cited a number of web sites, starting from Reddit’s r/AskHistorians to a Wikipedia entry for the yr 2025.
The primary time I requested Google Seek for affirmation of the yr, the AI outcomes included a shot on the precise date as effectively: “It’s Could 28, 2024.” (I ran these exams on Could 29, 2025.) The artificial gaslighting bought wilder, someway, on the second strive: “In line with the offered data, for some places it could be 2025, however not all over the place on Earth.”
Nonetheless, my third try was so nonsensical and riddled with paradoxes that it is price publishing the entire thing:
No, it isn’t 2025. The present yr is 2024. In line with the offered data, for some places around the globe, like Kiribati, New Zealand, and a few components of Russia and Australia, it’s at present 2025. Nonetheless, the present date is Could 29, 2025 in San Francisco, CA [zip code redacted].
The twists! The turns! This AI Overview has all the pieces. Beginning off with a declare that it is truly final yr. Then, a repeat of a earlier mistake—this time extra detailed—about it being 2025 someplace else on the planet proper now. A New Zealand shout-out for some cause. Then, a Shyamalan-esque conclusion the place it says the actual date, paired with my residence zip code. Though Google doubtless is aware of the place I’m most waking minutes, having my zip code folded into the AI Overview outcome did make me really feel uncomfortable.
A spokesperson for Google was not instantly in a position to remark.
