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Google AI Overview made up an elaborate story about me

(bsky.app)
693 points jsheard | 2 comments | 01 Sep 25 14:27 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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meindnoch ◴[01 Sep 25 15:06 UTC] No.45093248[source]▶
It's not Google's fault. The 6pt text at the bottom clearly says:

"AI responses may include mistakes. Learn more"

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blibble ◴[01 Sep 25 15:26 UTC] No.45093476[source]▶
it IS google's fault, because they have created and are directly publishing defamatory content

how would you feel if someone searched for your name, and Google's first result states that you, unambiguously (by name and city) are a registered sex offender?

not a quote from someone else, just completely made up based on nothing other than word salad

would you honestly think "oh that's fine, because there's a size 8 text at the bottom saying it may be incorrect"

I very much doubt it

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mintplant ◴[01 Sep 25 15:31 UTC] No.45093531[source]▶
I believe 'meindnoch was being sarcastic.
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markburns ◴[01 Sep 25 16:08 UTC] No.45093906[source]▶
I'd love to know why this happens so much. There's enough people in both groups that do spot it and don't spot it. I don't think I've ever felt the need for a sarcasm marker when I've seen one. Yet without it, it seems there will always be people taking things literally.

It doesn't feel like something where people gradually pick up on it either over the years, it just feels like sarcasm is either redundantly pointed out for those who get it or it is guaranteed to get a literal interpretation response.

Maybe it's because the literal interpretation of sarcasm is almost always so wrong that it inspires people to comment much more. So we just can't get away from this inefficient encoding/communication pattern.

But then again, maybe I'm just often assuming people mean things that sound so wrong to me as sarcasm, so perhaps there are a lot of people out there honestly saying the opposite to what I think they are saying as a joke.

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1. jjj123 ◴[01 Sep 25 16:29 UTC] No.45094129[source]▶
The /s thing is the most surefire way to make whatever joke you’re making not funny at all, so I say go ahead and be sarcastic even if not everyone gets it.

And yeah, to your point about the literal interpretation of sarcasm being so absurd people want to correct it, I think you’re right. HN is a particularly pedantic corner of the internet, many of us like to be “right” for whatever reason.

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2. delecti ◴[01 Sep 25 17:12 UTC] No.45094567[source]▶
A lot of us are also autistic, and I suspect there's a sizable overlap with the people who like to be right. Though as someone in that overlap, it's less "I want to be the one who brings correctness" and more "I want discussions to only contain accurate facts".

But that aside, it is just simply the case that there are a lot of reasons why sarcasm can fail to land. So you just have to decide whether to risk ruining your joke with a tone indicator, or risk your joke failing to land and someone "correcting" you.