ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Google’s search AI is worst at Geography and Alphabets
So, it’s been about 4 months since Google launched SGE (Search Generative Experience) as an experimental add-on feature in its search engine where users can get AI-generated summarized answers below the search bar.
Pretty cool, right?
Well, they recently expanded it to two more countries —
- India
- Japan
I really had no idea about its launch here in India
Time to go and test it out.
But here’s the scoop
SGE, is somehow not so strong in the field of geography and alphabet.
You ask, “Why so?”
Let’s find out
The Geographical Challenge
So, I stumbled across an article in my Google feed yesterday, claiming that SGE isn’t quite not up to the mark.
The article mentions a scenario where SGE was asked to name those countries in Africa whose name starts with “K”.
And guess what?
It literally generated a false answer snippet saying that
“There are 54 recognized countries in Africa, and none of them begins with the letter K”.
Seriously?
It counted Kenya as the only country closest to match the word “K”
But that’s just not true.
So, I decided to give it a shot
I normally searched on Google about this (well till now I haven’t enabled SGE yet) and found this website called “News YCombinator“.
Upon entering, what I saw was a normal conversation between a user and ChatGPT.
As you can see in the image below
When I was reading the chat, I was horrified by the fact that AI can provide such misinformation, especially the last question asked by the user.
What do you think? Is this what called AI Hallucination?
Another set of geographical questions were also asked
One of those was to list down the number of countries in North America that starts with the letter “M”
And you know what?
It failed again
It pointed out Mexico right in the first, but then it went all over the map pointing out random countries.
It even listed Washington DC as a country
Seriously? what’s happening?
That’s the capital of U.S.
Despite giving wrong answers, it did cite sources from legitimate websites like World Population Review, The USGS, and Wikipedia.
The Alphabetical Challenge
Honestly! this part is a bit better than the previous part
When asked about the countries in Europe starting with the letter “G” it got all those right
Sometimes, it got close but slipped out in the end,
For instance, upon asking about the countries in Asia whose name starts with “C” and “J”, it pointed out Nepal at the end.
Not Gonna Lie but ChatGPT is built different
I asked ChatGPT to provide me a list of countries in North America that start with “M”
Well, it sounded very reasonable with its output in compared to Google’s AI,
I even asked it twice to be sure, but it stayed consistent with its answers.
Regarding this problem, a spokesperson at Google gave a reply
End thoughts
There are numerous articles on the internet, each with a different set of P.O.Vs
But I would say that we mustn’t discourage AI systems based on their present malfunctions.
Because it’s pretty normal for experimental features to have hiccups along the way.
As Google spokesperson mentioned earlier that it is still in its experimental stage, and it needs feedback to develop itself.
In near future, where AI systems holds a more significant role in the digital realm, it’s really vital to train them so that they can properly distinguish between accurate and inaccurate information,
This will help in enhancing user experience and online information quality.
Maybe, not now but later Google’s new search AI might become a game changer in the world of AI research.
Have you used Google’s new search AI yet?
What was your experience?
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