Reliability is no longer Google's strong point. The search engine's algorithm tends to favor uninteresting sites, "clickbait" content, or web pages boosted by SEO, these optimization techniques that exploit the system's flaws to move up in the results, to the detriment of the actual quality of the information.
It's 2025
The advent of generative artificial intelligence isn't helping matters, quite the contrary. Google now imposes its AI Overviews on Internet users in more than 200 countries (but still not in France), at the very top of search results. The web giant therefore has every right to boast by announcing the staggering figure of 1.5 billion monthly active users for these AI Overviews - Internet users have no choice.
Unfortunately, Google's AI-cobbled responses are not much more reliable than the search engine results, which is why it's better to go to the source, otherwise you risk major disappointments. We won't go back over the incredible episode of the pizza filled with glue, but a very recent example really casts doubt on the usefulness of this function.
A Reddit user has shared a few days ago a screenshot of an AI Overview answering a very innocent question: "Is it 2025?". The answer is, let's say, quite surprising: "No, it's not 2025. The current year is 2024, and today is May 27, 2024. The year 2025 is in the future, and the current date is May 27, 2024".
For the year, it's completely missed, on the other hand the day and month were right... but that's not enough! When challenged on social media, Google quickly corrected the error, and now the same question gives the correct answer, even if it's still a bit convoluted ("Yes, according to the information provided, the current year is 2025."). The company explained to Android Authority that "as with all search features," the company is constantly making improvements. "[We] use examples like this to update our systems." According to Google, "The vast majority of AI Overviews provide useful, factual information, and we are actively working on an update to address this type of issue."
Source: Android Authority
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