Generative AI Lies

Examples of generative AI making stuff up

Category: Food

  • Mountain-climbing advice

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    The US Forest Service reports that “a party of three young, novice climbers” climbed Mt. Shasta in late August. They got lost on the way down, and had to be rescued.

    So why am I posting about that here? Well:

    Some key factors in this incident: The group reported using an AI platform, YouTube videos and AllTrails to plan their climb. Specifically, they relied on AI to determine what types of food to bring, and how much food and water they would need for the trip.

    Never trust what generative AI tells you. I’ve been saying that for a while, but I feel like it’s especially important in a context where your survival depends on having accurate information.

  • Google AI lies about Scalzi

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    John Scalzi writes:

    Every assertion in this “AI Overview” of the question “What coffee does John Scalzi drink” is wrong. I don’t regularly drink coffee (and never black) I’ve never had black sesame jasmine cream tea, and I don’t hang in coffee shops. Don’t trust “AI” ever!

    The post was accompanied by a screensnap from Google’s AI Overview, answering the question “What coffee does John Scalzi drink”. As usual, the AI Overview provided links that supposedly linked to sources for the information that it was giving, but the linked-to pages don’t say what Google says they say.

    After Scalzi’s posted the above to Bluesky, Google’s answer changed to link to his post. But just because AI Overview might eventually be updated to give correct information, that doesn’t mean we should trust it.

  • Kosher bacon

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    If you do a Google search for [salt pork substitute kosher], the AI Overview tells you to try pancetta or bacon as a kosher substitute for salt pork.

    Yet another example of why you should never believe anything that generative AI tells you.

    (Original Facebook post.)

    (Update: Sometime in the year after I posted this, Google stopped returning an AI Overview in response to that query.)