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23rd April 2025

In today's example of how Google's AI overviews are the worst form of AI-assisted search (previously, hallucinating Encanto 2), it turns out you can type in any made-up phrase you like and tag "meaning" on the end and Google will provide you with an entirely made-up justification for the phrase.

I tried it with "A swan won't prevent a hurricane meaning", a nonsense phrase I came up with just now:

Google search results for "A swan won't prevent a hurricane meaning". AI overview from Search Labs shows the following: The saying "a swan won't prevent a hurricane" means that no matter how well-intentioned or seemingly harmless a person (or in this case, a swan) might be, they can't stop or prevent a large, destructive event like a hurricane. It highlights the idea that some things are simply too powerful or inevitable to be stopped by individual actions or efforts. Here's a more detailed breakdown: Swan: In this context, a swan is used as a symbol of something small, harmless, and insignificant. Hurricane: A hurricane is a powerful and destructive natural phenomenon, representing something large, overwhelming, and inevitable. The Saying's Meaning: The saying emphasizes that even the best efforts of a seemingly powerless entity (the swan) cannot alter the course or impact of a powerful, destructive event (the hurricane). In essence, "a swan won't prevent a hurricane" is a reminder that sometimes, we need to accept that certain events are simply beyond our control. Then two links represented as cardns: The Next Black Swan Event? Hurricane Milton's... Oct 7, 2024 Massive Flooding: Already saturated land from previou... in Linkedin by Jennifer Gibbs. Then Coping with Black Swans - Carrier Management from June 4 2014. It finishes with a note that Generative AI is experimental

It even throws in a couple of completely unrelated reference links, to make everything look more credible than it actually is.

I think this was first spotted by @writtenbymeaghan on Threads.

Posted 23rd April 2025 at 7:56 pm

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This is a note by Simon Willison, posted on 23rd April 2025.

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