Google’s AI Overviews Can Be Fooled by Made-Up Idioms, Highlighting AI’s Limitations

Google’s AI Overviews can be tricked into explaining fictional idioms as if they were real, showcasing the ongoing challenges of AI accuracy and reliability.

In the grand classroom of technology, where AI lessons come with more hype than a blockbuster movie premiere, even the top students—like Google’s AI Overview—can trip over their own shoelaces. This feature, meant to serve up quick answers like a diner short-order cook, has been caught red-handed explaining fake idioms as if they were ancient proverbs. Talk about a plot twist! It’s a gentle nudge reminding us that AI, for all its brainpower, isn’t perfect (and hey, neither are we).

Take the bizarre phrase ‘You can’t lick a badger twice.’ The AI, with the confidence of a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, spun it into a cautionary tale about double-crossing someone. Then there’s ‘You can’t golf without a fish,’ which it turned into a riddle about golf balls looking like fish. Creative? Absolutely. Accurate? Not so much. It’s like watching someone try to explain why the sky is green—entertaining, but wildly off the mark.

And the hits keep coming. ‘You can’t open a peanut butter jar with two left feet’ became a metaphor for lacking skill, while ‘You can’t marry pizza’ was framed as deep thoughts on matrimony. These gems are hilarious, sure, but they also shine a spotlight on AI’s ‘hallucinations’—fancy tech talk for making stuff up that sounds legit but isn’t. It’s the digital equivalent of a convincing liar who’s just winging it.

This isn’t AI’s first rodeo with credibility issues. Remember when legal eagles got burned by trusting AI-generated fiction? Ouch. These episodes are like alarm bells, reminding us to double-check AI’s homework. Because at the end of the day, technology’s a tool, not a guru—and it’s up to us to use our noggins.