Current Events > Digital Trends: How AI overviews and Google propagate misinformation.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Let's break down the misinformation pipeline here. A quick Google search along the lines of "Switch 2 games $90" will inevitably bring up a Reddit thread from /Games titled "Nintendo Switch 2 Games Will Cost $80 For Digital, $90 For Physical." The post includes a link to an article from Insider Gaming, a website known as a source for video game leaks. Insider Gaming was among a small handful of sites to run with the story that physical Switch 2 games cost $90 early on. Websites like Forbes reported the same information on April 2 in an article that includes no source for the claim and even mentions the 90 Euro detail. The article has not been corrected in the week following its publication.

Insider Gaming, on the other hand, did change its article. If you go into that Reddit thread and click the linked story, you'll instead land on "Nintendo Switch 2 Games Will Cost Up To $98 For Physical Games When Converted From Euros." There's a correction midway down the article now, but that change isn't reflected in the Reddit thread that now dominates search results on the topic.

That telephone game only gets worse. Exacerbating the confusion is Google's own AI overview, a tool that dominates the top of the page when it populates. If you were to Google "how much are Switch 2 games?" right now, there's a good chance you will get an AI overview that tells you that physical games either could or do cost $90. In my current search results, Google says "Nintendo Switch 2 games are expected to be priced higher than previous Nintendo Switch titles, with many games potentially costing $79.99 or even $89.99." Other results I've seen cut the "potentially" entirely and say they "will" cost that much.

That information comes with a few links, citing where the news came from. A link on a blurb about the $90 price point goes to an article from Indy100, which says outright that Mario Kart World costs $90 with no source to back it up. Other cited links point to articles from Mashable and CNET. The latter actually debunks the $90 claim, but that hasn't stopped Google's AI for using it as a source to back up its faulty information.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nqo4xeqcohr3nanxkldejy52/post/3lmkg3bdgts2f?ref_src=embed
https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/no-switch-2-games-arent-90-the-internet-is-just-broken-beyond-belief/
https://www.resetera.com/threads/digital-trends-the-confusion-around-90-switch-2-games-proves-how-broken-the-internet-is.1162149/

The article is about the Switch 2 but it's clear that this has and will apply to a lot of things beyond just the Switch 2.

Yeah, never fully trust the AI summary. It can be quite wrong.

This isn't even news. An AI doesn't "know" anything, it is just an aggregate of everything fed into it. So, if everyone is saying something is true then the AI isn't going to know any better.

AI doesn't think, it regurgitates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkNUfDae75o&t=9s
the techbros pushing this shit is dumb and i hate how it's now in google search

realnifty1 posted...

This isn't even news. An AI doesn't "know" anything, it is just an aggregate of everything fed into it. So, if everyone is saying something is true then the AI isn't going to know any better.

AI doesn't think, it regurgitates.

Unfortunately google is using it for their algorithm and will boost sites with these misinformation which causes a cyclical misinformation rabbit hole where nobody cares to check the original source.

Yeah, the internet has been the "Misinformation Superhighway" for a while now
>_>

realnifty1 posted...

This isn't even news. An AI doesn't "know" anything, it is just an aggregate of everything fed into it. So, if everyone is saying something is true then the AI isn't going to know any better.

AI doesn't think, it regurgitates.

This. It's how we get Google AI saying things like "Add Elmer's glue to your pizza sauce." And then when Google catches it saying something ridiculous, it turns off the AI results for that search

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8cc531b0.jpg

What really gets me about A.I. is how it spews such obvious falsehoods with such utter confidence

Like all the most obnoxious people you know rolled into one
>_>

I really think AI is very useful but basically every easily seen publicly facing application of it is so bad

realnifty1 posted...

This isn't even news. An AI doesn't "know" anything, it is just an aggregate of everything fed into it. So, if everyone is saying something is true then the AI isn't going to know any better.

AI doesn't think, it regurgitates.

It always bothers me when someone says here i checked ai and it told me this when people are arguing about legal things on FB

kirbymuncher posted...

I really think AI is very useful but basically every easily seen publicly facing application of it is so bad

Honestly agree