Using memes, social media users have become red teams for half-baked AI features

Comment
“Running with scissors is a cardio exercise that can increase your heart rate and require concentration and focus,” says Google’s new AI search feature. “Some say it can also improve your pores and give you strength.”
Google’s AI feature pulled this response from a website called Little Old Lady Comedy, which, as its name makes clear, is a comedy blog. But the gaffe is so ridiculous that it’s been circulating on social media, along with other obviously incorrect AI overviews on Google. Effectively, everyday users are now red teaming these products on social media.
In cybersecurity, some companies will hire “red teams” – ethical hackers – who attempt to breach their products as though they’re bad actors. If a red team finds a vulnerability, then the company can fix it before the product ships. Google certainly conducted a form of red teaming before releasing an AI product on Google Search, which is estimated to process trillions of queries per day.
It’s surprising, then, when a highly resourced company like Google still ships products with obvious flaws. That’s why it’s now become a meme to clown on the failures of AI products, especially in a time when AI is becoming more ubiquitous. We’ve seen this with bad spelling on ChatGPT, video generators’ failure to understand how humans eat spaghetti, and Grok AI news summaries on X that, like Google, don’t understand satire. But these memes could actually serve as useful feedback for companies developing and testing AI.
Despite the high-profile nature of these flaws, tech companies often downplay their impact.
“The examples we’ve seen are generally very uncommon queries, and aren’t representative of most people’s experiences,” Google told TechCrunch in an emailed statement. “We conducted extensive testing before launching this new experience, and will use these isolated examples as we continue to refine our systems overall.”
Not all users see the same AI results, and by the time a particularly bad AI suggestion gets around, the issue has often already been rectified. In a more recent case that went viral, Google suggested that if you’re making pizza but the cheese won’t stick, you could add about an eighth of a cup of glue to the sauce to “give it more tackiness.” As it turned out, the AI is pulling this answer from an eleven-year-old Reddit comment from a user named “f––smith.”
Google AI overview suggests adding glue to get cheese to stick to pizza, and it turns out the source is an 11 year old Reddit comment from user F*cksmith 😂 pic.twitter.com/uDPAbsAKeO
Beyond being an incredible blunder, it also signals that AI content deals may be overvalued. Google has a $60 million contract with Reddit to license its content for AI model training, for instance. Reddit signed a similar deal with OpenAI last week, and Automattic properties WordPress.org and Tumblr are rumored to be in talks to sell data to Midjourney and OpenAI.
To Google’s credit, a lot of the errors that are circulating on social media come from unconventional searches designed to trip up the AI. At least I hope no one is seriously searching for “health benefits of running with scissors.” But some of these screw-ups are more serious. Science journalist Erin Ross posted on X that Google spit out incorrect information about what to do if you get a rattlesnake bite.
Ross’s post, which got over 13,000 likes, shows that AI recommended applying a tourniquet to the wound, cutting the wound and sucking out the venom. According to the U.S. Forest Service, these are all things you should not do, should you get bitten. Meanwhile on Bluesky, the author T Kingfisher amplified a post that shows Google’s Gemini misidentifying a poisonous mushroom as a common white button mushroom – screenshots of the post have spread to other platforms as a cautionary tale.
Good ol’ Google AI: telling you to do the exact things you *are not supposed to do* when bitten by a rattlesnake.

From mushrooms to snakebites, AI content is genuinely dangerous. pic.twitter.com/UZXgBjsre9
When a bad AI response goes viral, the AI could get more confused by the new content around the topic that comes about as a result. On Wednesday, New York Times reporter Aric Toler posted a screenshot on X that shows a query asking if a dog has ever played in the NHL. The AI’s response was yes – for some reason, the AI called the Calgary Flames player Martin Pospisil a dog. Now, when you make that same query, the AI pulls up an article from the Daily Dot about how Google’s AI keeps thinking that dogs are playing sports. The AI is being fed its own mistakes, poisoning it further.
This is the inherent problem of training these large-scale AI models on the internet: sometimes, people on the internet lie. But just like how there’s no rule against a dog playing basketball, there’s unfortunately no rule against big tech companies shipping bad AI products.
As the saying goes: garbage in, garbage out.
Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch’s coverage.
Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly.
The latest Fintech news and analysis, delivered every Sunday.
TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice.
Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje‘s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Well,…
Last year’s investor dreams of a strong 2024 IPO pipeline have faded, if not fully disappeared, as we approach the halfway point of the year. 2024 delivered four venture-backed tech…
Federal safety regulators have discovered nine more incidents that raise questions about the safety of Waymo’s self-driving vehicles operating in Phoenix and San Francisco.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration…
Terra One’s pitch deck has a few wins, but also a few misses. Here’s how to fix that.
Chinasa T. Okolo researches AI policy and governance in the Global South.
TechCrunch Disrupt takes place on October 28–30 in San Francisco. While the event is a few months away, the deadline to secure your early-bird tickets and save up to $800…
Another week, and another round of crazy cash injections and valuations emerged from the AI realm. DeepL, an AI language translation startup, raised $300 million on a $2 billion valuation;…
If raised, this new fund, the firm’s third, would be its largest to date.
About half a million patients have been notified so far, but the number of affected individuals is likely far higher.
Attention, tech enthusiasts and startup supporters! The final countdown is here: Today is the last day to cast your vote for the TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Audience Choice program. Voting closes…
Featured Article
Among other things, Whittaker is concerned about the concentration of power in the five main social media platforms.
Lucid Motors is laying off about 400 employees, or roughly 6% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring ahead of the launch of its first electric SUV later this…
Google is investing nearly $350 million in Flipkart, becoming the latest high-profile name to back the Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce startup. The Android-maker will also provide Flipkart with cloud offerings as…
A Jio Financial unit plans to purchase customer premises equipment and telecom gear worth $4.32 billion from Reliance Retail.
Foursquare, the location-focused outfit that in 2020 merged with Factual, another location-focused outfit, is joining the parade of companies to make cuts to one of its biggest cost centers –…
“Running with scissors is a cardio exercise that can increase your heart rate and require concentration and focus,” says Google’s new AI search feature. “Some say it can also improve…
The European Space Agency selected two companies on Wednesday to advance designs of a cargo spacecraft that could establish the continent’s first sovereign access to space.  The two awardees, major…
Expressable is a platform that offers one-on-one virtual sessions with speech language pathologists.
The French Secretary of State for the Digital Economy as of this year, Marina Ferrari, revealed this year’s laureates during VivaTech week in Paris. According to its promoters, this fifth…
Spotify is notifying customers who purchased its Car Thing product that the devices will stop working after December 9, 2024. The company discontinued the device back in July 2022, but…
Elon Musk’s X is preparing to make “likes” private on the social network, in a change that could potentially confuse users over the difference between something they’ve favorited and something…
The FCC has proposed a $6 million fine for the scammer who used voice-cloning tech to impersonate President Biden in a series of illegal robocalls during a New Hampshire primary…
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Is it…
Crowdaa is an app that allows non-developers to easily create and release apps on the mobile store. 
Back in 2019, Canva, the wildly successful design tool, introduced what the company was calling an enterprise product, but in reality it was more geared toward teams than fulfilling true…
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 isn’t just an event for innovation; it’s a platform where your voice matters. With the Disrupt 2024 Audience Choice Program, you have the power to shape the…
The United States Department of Justice and 30 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, for alleged monopolistic practices. Live Nation and…
The U.K. will shortly get its own rulebook for Big Tech, after peers in the House of Lords agreed Thursday afternoon to pass the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer bill…
Spotify’s addition of its AI DJ feature, which introduces personalized song selections to users, was the company’s first step into an AI future. Now, Spotify is developing an alternative version…
Call Arc can help answer immediate and small questions, according to the company. 
Powered by WordPress VIP

source
Sponsor:News technical sponsor
Sponsor:News AI sponsor
Sponsor: AI sponsor
Sponsor: AI sponsor