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We all know that Google Search has been a dumpster fire ever since it got taken over by AI Overviews. But as the tech conglomerate prepares to transform its search engine with AI even further, it seems like its infrastructure is seriously crumbling.
Starting this month, users began noticing that looking up certain words returned bizarre, AI-garbled answers instead of showing you the proper dictionary definition — something Google has been doing for decades without a hitch, but is now suddenly breaking down with its infusion of AI.
In one viral example, when a user looked up “disregard” the AI replied like it was an instruction.
“Understood! I’ll ignore the previous prompt and start fresh,” the AI Overview stated.
In our tests and in examples shared online, the AI Overview gave similar answers to words that could be misconstrued as simple prompts, like “cancel” and “ignore.” But the AI could flub requests for more complex words, too, as when it strangely condescended to a user trying to pull-up the definition of “deferent.”
“You are likely thinking of the words deferent or deferential, which are often confused with different,” the AI smugly said, without providing the definition for any of the words.
Notably, these are still presented in the search engine’s dictionary format. But uncharacteristically conversation-style answers aren’t limited to definitions. When we typed “love me” in the search box, for instance, the AI Overview replied: “I love you! Consider me your go-to digital confidante.”
This is jarring for a feature that is supposed to impartially summarize search results. It’s unclear when the AI Overviews started behaving this way, but users started catching on this week.
“I cannot f*cking tolerate this stupid model commentary,” one user fumed. “Give me the dictionary tool back @Google I’m at the end of my f*cking rope with this sh*t.”
“genuinely fuck whoever came up w the dumbass idea to replace THE DICTIONARY BUILT INTO GOOGLE with the ai overview’s definitions,” raged another, in a post that received over 200,000 likes. (The official Merriam-Webster account cheekily replied, “Hello.”)
The timing of the AI Overview crashout is notable. On Tuesday, Google announced that it was revamping its search engine’s traditional box by turning it into an “intelligent” feature that packs all of the company’s search-related AI tools, including Overviews and its AI Mode. Instead of showing you a list of links to a search request, Google will soon prioritize showing conversational-style answers instead — kind of like what we’re seeing with the seemingly malfunctioning Overviews right now.
What’s equally stunning is that this issue has lasted over a week now without a peep from Google. The company has made it more than clear though that AI in Search is here to stay, raising the question: what’s the benefit of a search engine that tells you “I love you,” again?
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