Google user baffled after AI gives wildly different answers to nearly identical prompts: 'Then explain this'

Though it is called artificial intelligence, AI is not always so intelligent. One Google user took screenshots of Google AI's contradicting responses to two search terms with similar intents. Posting to the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, the OP opened the floor for commenters to share their feelings on AI.

"Google's genius AI giving a different answer to the same question worded slightly differently," the OP wrote above photos of the two searches. The search terms were "baking soda kill fleas" and "does baking soda kill fleas." 

For the first search term, Google AI provided a clear "yes," whereas for the second search term, the AI retracted its previous response, answering "no." The latter search response concluded that baking soda may absorb odor and dehydrate some insects, but baking soda is not effective against fleas. 

Misinterpretation or an incorrect response to a user's prompt is also known as a "hallucination," according to IBM. Various things can cause AI hallucinations, including "insufficient training data, incorrect assumptions made by the model, or biases in the data used to train the model," per Google's knowledge base.

AI hallucinations may simply be funny and mildly infuriating, as in this particular instance. However, they could be dangerous in medical or financial search queries, providing the user with misleading or incorrect information. 

While AI has helped improve aspects of daily living — such as this AI weather tool or this AI toxic chemical identification technology — other instances, such as the OP's Google AI hallucination, lead many to understandably re-evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of AI.

AI data centers consume significant amounts of energy to compute and store data, according to the Yale School of Environment. The data centers also require a lot of water to keep the equipment cool.

At the rate that AI is growing and consuming natural resources, Goldman Sachs predicts that AI data centers will "use 8% of US power by 2030." 

Knowing how much energy and natural resources go into crafting each AI response, and for the AI response to be wrong, is this feature still worth it?

"And they said AI is smarter than humans pshh. then explain this!" one commenter mocked.

How often do you worry about having your personal info stolen? Never 😌 Sometimes 😟 Often 😨 Always 😱 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

"I wish you could turn off AI Overview," another commenter said, to which another user replied: "Add -ai to your search and it won't show the AI overview."

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