Google, still problems with AI: users taken aback by some suggestions that the artificial intelligence has given on some questions
The world of technology has recently been shaken by a series of rather unusual episodes linked to Google’s new AI Overviews function, which has led users to receive bizarre advice such as adding glue to pizza or consuming green leaves as if they were a normal ingredient culinary.
These outlandish suggestions have raised many concerns about the maturity and reliability of the AI-based technologies currently in use. The AI Overviews feature, unveiled with great fanfare at the latest Google I/O, aimed to revolutionize the way users interact with the search engine by offering insights and links to relevant resources directly on the results page.
Google AI: a problematic launch
However, the launch did not go as expected: the answers provided by the artificial intelligence often bordered on the absurd, forcing Google to intervene quickly to correct the most obvious errors. Despite a full year of testing and a beta phase launched in May 2023 under the name Search Generative Experience, it seems that the technology was not yet ready for large-scale use.
In the face of growing criticism, Sundar Pichai sought to reassure users and investors by highlighting the company’s progress in optimizing the costs of providing AI responses. Thanks to hardware innovations and new software techniques, Google was able to reduce the associated costs by 80%. However, these optimizations may have been implemented prematurely, before the platform was actually ready to face market challenges.
Competition in the field of artificial intelligence
The situation becomes further complicated when we consider the competitive context in which Google operates. With Microsoft Bing already introducing advanced AI-powered features and OpenAI developing its own independent search engine, the pressure to maintain a dominant position in the industry is palpable. This urgency may have pushed the company to release a technology that is still immature on the market.
Despite the initial difficulties and the criticism received, Google does not seem willing to abandon the AI Overviews project. The goal remains to create a system capable of processing complex reasoning for detailed queries and generating results pages intelligently organized by artificial intelligence itself. To achieve this ambitious goal, however, it will be necessary to overcome current challenges by guaranteeing users correct and reliable answers that they can count on every day.
While the venture into artificial intelligence continues to offer exciting possibilities for the future of online search, recent setbacks demonstrate how important it is to proceed with caution and ensure that the technological foundations are solid before moving forward towards ever more ambitious goals.
