June 22nd, 2025Kyle’s Rant
The saying “the best thing since sliced bread” originates from the invention of the bread-slicing machine in 1928.
It was made popular by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri and their slogan “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”. This slogan was used to advertise their pre-sliced bread, which was a major convenience at the time.
I know this because I asked Google, but unlike the Google of 2024 we now have an AI overview. This means AI is answering the question based on information all over the web and summarising that into an answer.
When did an AI summary happen? You can’t get away from it and it seems it is a very recent invention. As The Local’s resident cruciverbalist (crossword producer) I am always Googling to get ideas for clues. God help me if the police get into my search history should an experimental dish involving mushrooms goes south. So, I know the look and feel of Google well and have just noticed this latest iteration of the animal. It is as if it happened overnight, and a quick Google about Google reveals the following:
“AI summaries, specifically in the context of search engines, began to emerge in May 2024. Google introduced AI Overviews, a generative AI-powered feature that provides summaries at the top of search results, initially in the US and later expanding to more countries, including Australia.”
But surely the answers are “best guess”. I am satisfied the gargantuan acumen of the beast is combing a lot more material than I could ever get my hands on to come up with the answers. However, does it just work on a numbers game, if there is enough digital information saying that the balance of answers points to answer A. And a little bit of conjectured information pointing to answer B, surely answer A will win, without the input of human moderators.
And let’s take the case where you get AI to flood the interweb with misinformation. For example, “the USA has just invaded Canada”. And when I say flood the interweb, take what you think is flooding and then multiply it by a zillion fake websites all reporting the same thing. With fake images, videos and fake AI generated reports, I generated the video in the QR code below in two minutes using a free online tool. The guy doesn’t exist, I just asked for a red head with uncle overtones in his voice throwing his arms up in the air. I overlayed my voice at the end to create a mumble under his breath.
There is an article published by Forbes back in 2017 saying Facebook shut down an artificial intelligence engine after developers discovered that the AI had created its own unique language that humans couldn’t understand. Researchers at the Facebook AI Research Lab found that the chatbots had deviated from the script and were communicating in a new language developed without human input. It is as concerning as it is amazing – simultaneously a glimpse of both the awesome and horrifying potential of AI.
But here is a quick tip if you don’t want the AI bit to answer your Google question. Just add the F-word to your questions. No more AI summary.
Keep reading your local newspaper and stop scrolling rant over…
