Google's AI Overviews Stumble: The Year That Wasn't

Google fixes bug that led AI Overviews to say it's now 2024 | TechCrunch

AI tools are touted as capable helpers that can easily help you research, code, summarize, write and bring you knowledge of any kind. But sometimes simple questions befuddle them. Google's AI Overviews, for example, is confused what year it is. Several users reported over the past few days that when they asked Google what year it is, AI Overviews said the current year is 2024. This reporter got the same answer on Thursday morning when Google was asked if it's 2025 right now. Google finally fixed the bug late on Thursday. When asked why this happened, Google didn't provide a particular reason, only saying that it was working on an update to avoid such issues. "As with all Search features, we rigorously make improvements and use examples like this to update our systems. The vast majority of AI Overviews provide helpful, factual information, and we're actively working on an update to address this type of issue," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. Google has been working on AI Overviews for a few years now, and the feature has so far made some notable blunders -- to name just a couple, it has recommended users eat "one small rock per day," saying rocks are a good source of vitamins and minerals, and even suggested adding glue in order to help cheese stick to a pizza. When the company rolled out the feature in Hindi in India, TechCrunch found that its answers were often inconsistent and confusing. In recent weeks, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has touted usage numbers for AI Overviews, saying that the feature is now being used by 1.5 billion users in over 100 countries. He also added that in markets like the U.S. and India, the feature is driving over 10% usage of the search engine for related queries. The company is betting a lot on driving people to use its AI-powered search and Q&A features more.

Google AI Overviews Says It's Still 2024

When asked to confirm the current year, Google's AI-generated top result confidently answers, "No, it is not 2025." I've covered Google's AI Overviews since its messy rollout last year, when screenshots of absurdly wrong answers started popping up at the top of search results and going viral on social media. Still, when I first saw images of AI Overviews confidently saying that it's still 2024 in Reddit posts today, I thought they might be altered screenshots. I mean, over a billion Google users currently see the AI-generated results every month. Surely, such an obvious error would have been caught and patched by now? I was wrong. Repeating the prompt "is it 2025" verbatim three times gave me three different AI Overview results, yet the first sentence was the same in each result: "No, it is not 2025." The erroneous results cited multiple websites, ranging from Reddit's r/AskHistorians to a Wikipedia entry for the year 2025. The first time I asked Google Search for confirmation of the year, the AI results included a shot at the exact date as well: "It is May 28, 2024." (I ran these tests on May 29, 2025.) The synthetic gaslighting got wilder, somehow, on the second try: "According to the provided information, for some locations it might be 2025, but not everywhere on Earth." However, my third attempt was so nonsensical and riddled with paradoxes that it's worth publishing the whole thing: No, it is not 2025. The current year is 2024. According to the provided information, for some locations around the world, like Kiribati, New Zealand, and some parts of Russia and Australia, it is currently 2025. However, the current date is May 29, 2025 in San Francisco, CA [zip code redacted]. The twists! The turns! This AI Overview has everything. Starting off with a claim that it's actually last year. Then, a repeat of a previous mistake -- this time more detailed -- about it being 2025 somewhere else in the world right now. A New Zealand shout-out for some reason. Then, a Shyamalan-esque conclusion where it says the real date, paired with my home zip code. Although Google likely knows where I am most waking minutes, having my zip code folded into the AI Overview result did make me feel uncomfortable. A spokesperson for Google was not immediately able to comment.

Google's AI Overview now correctly answers it's 2025, but leaves us with major trust issues

Users can continue to add "-ai" to searches to turn off the AI Overview results for a cleaner, more traditional Google Search experience. Two days ago, we at Android Authority were the first to report on an embarrassing AI Overview gaffe where Google Search would incorrectly but confidently give the wrong answer for the simple query "Is it 2025?". At the time of reporting, we had tried multiple times to get the correct answer, but Google Search would fail differently, but fail nonetheless. Thankfully, it seems Google has now fixed the answer, as AI Overview now correctly responds that it indeed is 2025.

Google's latest AI Overview blunder is more proof AI still needs a reality check

The wire-free Google Nest Doorbell is $50 off, falling to one of its best prices ever It's no secret that Google has been going all-in with artificial intelligence. The Mountain View-based giant has been racing to roll out new and more powerful AI models and already has multiple AI-powered tools like NotebookLM. Google is also constantly working on experimental AI projects, the most recent being an app called Google AI Edge Gallery, which lets you run powerful AI models without requiring a Wi-Fi connection or cellular data. Related Google's best improvements are the ones you'll never see coming Google proves that the heart of a great phone beats inside the software Posts 1 Google's AI Overviews don't need much introduction and have been around for more than a year now. Despite that, these overviews keep embarrassing the company and are all the proof anyone needs that AI isn't quite ready to take over the world just yet. Its most recent blunder? Telling people it's still 2024 with utmost confidence when asked what year it is, even though we're already six months deep into 2025! Google fixed the problematic AI Overview, but the issues aren't over Earlier this week, a user posted on the r/google subreddit that asking "is it 2025" gave them the following AI Overview: No, it is not 2025. The current year is 2024, as of today, May 27, 2024. The year 2025 is in the future, and the current date is May 27, 2025. Users in the comments shared even more screenshots, and though the wording in their AI Overviews was slightly different, the answer buried within was all the same. For instance, a user got the following AI Overview where it first stated that it isn't 2025, and then contradicted itself by saying the current year is 2025. Here's the exact response, which I got too, coincidentally: Yeah, AI Overviews are clearly intelligent. Despite being six months deep into the year, we've all collectively definitely entered 2025 due to time zone differences! Google eventually fixed the answer, and the AI Overview began responding that we're indeed living in the year 2025. A Google spokesperson shared the following statement with the folks over at Android Authority: As with all Search features, we rigorously make improvements and use examples like this to update our systems. The vast majority of AI Overviews provide helpful, factual information and we're actively working on an update to address this type of issue. Though Google quickly jumped on this and rolled out a fix, it's just another reason it needs to slow down on its AI development. And for us, it's another reminder that AI simply cannot be trusted. AI Overviews pull their answers from sources online, and it seems not to do the best job at even that. For instance, in the example above, it kept citing Wikipedia as a source! And this is far from the first time a result from AI Overviews has gone viral for all the wrong reasons like this. Last year in May, Google's AI Overviews told people to eat glue and rocks, and even recommended adding glue to pizza. Just a few weeks ago, when anyone attempted to type a completely random sentence that sounded like it could be an idiom into Google Search, an AI Overview would pop up and explain the sentence as if it were an actual idiom. Android Police's former Phones Editor, Will Sattelberg, posted a thread sharing his experience when he tried searching for a synonym for the word mania that started with the letter T. Instead of suggesting a synonym that fit the criteria he described or telling him that no such synonym exists (which it does), the AI Overview took it one step further and gave him the perfect synonym: frenzy. Clearly starts with a "T," great job Google! So, take this as a friendly reminder folks, don't trust AI, especially not AI Overviews.

Google AI Overviews still struggles to answer basic questions and count

Remember those old school sports and actions movies -- think Billy Bob in Varsity Blues -- where they'd ask dazed people simple questions to see if they're concussed? How many fingers am I holding up? Or, what year is it? Well, even by that low, low standard, Google's AI overviews may not pass concussion protocol. This week, folks noticed that Google's AI overviews couldn't reliably discern that the year was, in fact, 2025. (To be clear, we are now about halfway through 2025.) There were a number of posts about it online. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. TechCrunch spotted the issue and noted that Google fixed this particular bug, if not the underlying problem. "As with all Search features, we rigorously make improvements and use examples like this to update our systems. The vast majority of AI Overviews provide helpful, factual information, and we're actively working on an update to address this type of issue," a Google spokesperson told the tech outlet. The whole what year is it debacle is far from the only time Google's AI overviews have tripped up over simple questions. Two staff members at Mashable asked Google other simple questions: "Is it Friday?" and "How many r's are in blueberry?" It answered both simple questions incorrectly, spitting out that it was Thursday and there was only one r in blueberry, respectively. It's worth noting that Google's AI tools previously went viral for answering a similar question incorrectly ("how many r's are in the word strawberry?"). It seems the underlying issue -- that issue would be counting -- still has not been remedied. Google Search expert Lily Ray has called this approach to fixing AI bugs the "whack-a-mole approach." In other words, Google fixes bugs one-by-one instead of making a wholesale improvement. The accuracy problem has been a longstanding one for Google's AI overviews. Mashable tested the overviews' accuracy six months after launch -- December of actual 2024 -- and found there were still major problems, even if it was improving. Overviews can prove especially faulty when working with incorrect or incomplete queries. The Google tool often makes stuff up or confidently gets info wrong when it doesn't have a clear answer. It became a trend, for instance, to have Google's AI overviews create meaning for nonsensical, invented idioms. Or remember when Google's AI overviews first launched and it confidently told folks that a dog played in the NBA and that you should add glue to pizza? Despite these persistent issues and incorrect answers, Google still pushed forward in rolling out AI Mode for all U.S. searchers. And at Google I/O 2025, the company bragged that its AI Overviews were reaching 1.5 billion people per month. So when you're out there Googling, just be careful -- and be sure to know what year it is.

Google AI Overview thinks it's still 2024, sometimes

Google is very keen on its AI Overview feature, rolling it out across the world and spending a lot of effort to minimize embarrassing moments like supposedly telling people to eat rocks. But apparently, those improvements don't always include things like the current year. A viral Reddit post this week showed an AI Overview declaring it is still 2024 to question "Is it 2025?" Google soon claimed to have fixed the issue, according to an Android Authority report, but I found that to be only sometimes true. Most of the time, the AI Overview provides accurate answers. It actually appears to be a manual fix because it's phrased as "Yes, according to the provided information, the current year is 2025," even though I had not provided any information. Around a tenth of the time, though, I get "No, it is not 2025. The current year is 2024." That's odd enough, of course, but that's nothing compared to when I apparently caused a time paradox and the AI Overview said, "No, it is not 2025. The current year is 2025. According to a calendar, we are in the year 2025." Firstly, it's not 2025; it's 2025 is a good reminder that generative AI is often just a fancy autocomplete tool that doesn't have to make sense for the algorithm to function. Also, "a calendar" suggests that others disagree for some reason. It's hardly a catastrophic bug, but it does bring back memories of AI Overview's other awkward moments. Most famously, the AI Overview briefly told people to "eat one small rock per day" for digestion and "put glue on pizza to make the cheese stick better." When a product bills itself as an amalgamation of reliable sources but can't reliably tell what year it is, it makes you wonder how much else it's getting wrong. Google calls these kinds of results edge cases. And most of the time, AI Overview gives you something sensible. It's usually correct. It's just that the times it's not are sometimes so bizarre you might forget about how good its record is. AI search is very much on the rise at Google. Search is also a central preoccupation for many AI developers, such as Perplexity and OpenAI. But since AI doesn't quite understand the difference between fact and fiction, you'd do well to clarify and confirm whatever it tells you.

Google Humiliated as Its Idiot AI Overviews Caught Telling Users It's Still 2024

Talk about cutting-edge tech. Google's more-than-frequently-wrong AI Overviews search feature still thinks it's 2024. The annoying AI box, which has remained error-riddled since its inception just over a year ago, has confidently been telling users that it's still 2024, as Wired reports. Simply asking AI Overviews if it's 2025 resulted in a head-scratching answer. "No, it is not 2025," the AI responded, leading to widespread mockery on social media. "Wait did Google announce a time machine at I/O?" one user quipped, referring to the tech company's conference earlier this month. But it didn't take long for Google to interfere and squash the bug, as TechCrunch found, with AI Overviews now providing a correct answer to the query. The humiliating instance highlights a persistent and glaring problem plaguing some of the most advanced large language models: frequent hallucinations remain an enormous -- and growing -- issue, leading to copious confusion online and significantly undercutting the tech's usefulness. Google's AI Overviews, in particular, has garnered a reputation for consistently leading users astray. The feature made headlines last year for outrageous missteps like telling home chefs to put glue on their pizza or instructing parents to smear fecal matter on a balloon to potty train children. The tech giant has largely resorted to playing an enormous game of whack-a-mole, addressing each embarrassment in turn. As such, Google didn't reveal what caused its AI Overviews to think it was still 2024. "As with all Search features, we rigorously make improvements and use examples like this to update our systems," a spokesperson told TechCrunch. "The vast majority of AI Overviews provide helpful, factual information, and we're actively working on an update to address this type of issue." But there's arguably an immense gulf between being good enough and still spouting utter nonsense. Given the baffling consistency of AI Overviews' errors, Google has its work cut out to stop it from telling users to eat rocks or make up bizarre explanations of idioms that don't exist.

Google's AI push overshadowed by an awkward date error

Google was all about AI at its annual I/O event last week. The tech giant wants its Gemini AI model everywhere and plans to put it in all of its devices. It also plans on bringing its AI into more of its services. One of those services getting the AI upgrade is Gmail. Over the course of the upcoming weeks, Gmail users will begin seeing AI summaries of their email, according to a blog post from Google. This summary will provide bullet points of what was in the email as well as any follow-up replies to make sure you're up to date. This feature will only be available on emails in English. Those who don't care for AI summarizing their correspondence can opt out of the feature, but it will be enabled by default. Google began instituting AI features into Gmail last year by having Gemini provide instant replies that no longer sounded generic. At the same time, Google is implementing new AI features, but some people have found the company's AI is far from perfect. A post on Reddit went viral earlier in the week when a screenshot of an interaction with an AI summary on Google Search was unable to determine what the current year was. And yet we can't turn this off from r/google In the screenshot, the individual did a Google search asking, "Is it 2025?" The AI summary they received apparently had issues with the question saying, "It is not 2025. The current year is 2024." Other people on X posted similar results. Wired did multiple tests over this prompt and confirmed the issue. In one case, the AI summary reiterated that it was 2024, but said that in parts of New Zealand and Russia, it was 2025. It even went on to contradict itself, saying that it was 2025 after claiming it was 2024. A Google spokesperson says it was working on the problem. "As with all Search features, we rigorously make improvements and use examples like this to update our systems. The vast majority of AI Overviews provide helpful, factual information, and we're actively working on an update to address this type of issue," Meghann Farnsworth, a Google spokesperson, told Wired. As of the publication of this article, Googling "is it 2025" returns with an AI summary saying, "Yes, according to the provided information, the current year is 2025." It remains to be seen if this problem will happen again in 2026.