Caution! Distrust Google’s AI summary of search results!

Public Service Announcement

Hi AI ethics enthusiasts,

Recently, Google introduced a feature that places AI-generated summaries at the top of search result pages. While this might seem like a convenient way to get quick information, it's a decision fraught with potential dangers. This is a perfect example of how AI can silently shape our information landscape, often with unintended consequences.

I’ll walk you through a small but telling example I encountered.

For dessert, an AI-generated take on this post!

An example

I wanted to know how many Israelis live in the US. Simple question, right? I got false and inconsistent information.

1. The AI summary confidently stated there were about 6 million Israelis in the US.

2. This number immediately raised red flags - it would account for roughly two-thirds of Israel's entire population!

3. The answer was also internally inconsistent

4. Refreshing the page yielded the correct result, giving a whole new meaning to one of Google’s products “Feeling lucky?”