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If you Googled \u201cmiserable failure\u201d in 2005, President George W. Bush\u2019s official biography on the White House website would show up<\/a> as the top result.<\/p>\n This was not a political act on the tech company\u2019s part, but rather, a prank. Early jokesters of the internet may remember the 2000s fun of \u201cGoogle bombing,\u201d of which the Bush insult is the most famous.\u00a0<\/p>\n Google bombing occurred when trollers linked a webpage \u2013 like Bush\u2019s biography \u2013 to specific text on their own sites \u2013 like, in Bush\u2019s case, \u201cmiserable failure.\u201d With enough instances, the search engine\u2019s algorithm misinterpreted the terms as popularly linked. This created all kinds of entertaining results<\/a>: Googling \u201cLiar\u201d and \u201cpoodle\u201d produced the webpage for UK\u2019s prime minister at the time, Tony Blair, while \u201cDangerous cult\u201d returned the Church of Scientology\u2019s website as the first result.\u00a0<\/p>\n Google adjusted<\/a> its algorithm to prevent further Googlebombs in 2007. However, the ghost of Googlebombs has come back to haunt the tech giant, and this time, it\u2019s through their own technological goof.\u00a0<\/p>\n After Google rolled out<\/a> an AI-powered search overview in May, users quickly noticed the false and wacky results that these overviews sometimes provided. If you asked Google about the health benefits of running with scissors, it told you<\/a> the activity was a good cardio exercise to \u201cimprove your pores and give you strength.\u201d Another query led Google to recommend the health benefits of rocks, apparently referencing a satirical article from the Onion<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEating the right rocks can be good for you because they contain minerals that are important for your body\u2019s health,\u201d Google\u2019s AI overview replied to a reporter\u2019s query.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n However, nothing made the internet riot<\/a> as much as a suggestion from the AI Overview to \u201cmix about 1\/8 cup of non-toxic glue into the sauce\u201d to keep cheese from sliding off your pizza slice.<\/p>\n A spokesperson from Google brushed off the false results, writing at the time that \u201cthe examples we\u2019ve seen are generally very uncommon queries, and aren\u2019t representative of most people\u2019s experiences.\u201d They added that the \u201cvast majority\u201d of AI Overviews provide high quality information, with links to allow the inquiring person to dig deeper into a search.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, even as Google publicly expressed confidence in its new AI tool,\u00a0 the company quietly began reducing its visibility. Google gradually reduced the amount that AI Overviews popped up in search results from 84% to 15%, according to research<\/a> from content marketing platform BrightEdge.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson from Google disputed the data, noting that the numbers were different than what the company had seen. They added that this was likely because BrightEdge looked at a narrowed query set that is not a representative sample of Google Search traffic, including those who had opted out of AI overviews.<\/p>\n One example where AI overviews sometimes still shows up is the same glue-in-pizza result that had the internet rolling. The Verge<\/em> recently reported<\/a> that if you ask Google how much glue to add to your pizza, it will give the same result, only this time citing an article<\/a> from Business Insider about the fiasco.\u00a0<\/p>\n Which means that,it seems like the more journalists write about the ridiculous AI Overviews, the more it feeds the algorithm to produce the same, wrong results. It\u2019s a kind of self-fulfilling feedback loop that recalls the absurdity of the Googlebombing days, although the only troll in play is Google itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Fortune <\/em>reporters attempted various searches for pizza, cheese, and glue, no AI overview would pop up, possibly meaning that Google may have caught wind of their continuous blunders and promptly adjusted their platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Google spokesperson said the queries continue to show for a large number of searches, but the technology is undergoing edits.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re continuing to refine when and how we show AI Overviews so they\u2019re as useful as possible, including technical updates to improve response quality,\u201d they told Fortune<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u2018Glue in pizza\u2019 remains strong<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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