Google Search Is Dying. What Comes Next Is Worse | The Walrus
I T TURNS OUT A lot of people ask Google when the sun will set. It’s a good fact to know. Getting a ballpark on twilight can help you plan a bike ride, barbecue, or a perfectly timed promposal. The occurrence lasts only between two and a half and four minutes, and it happens dynamically depending on your proximity to the equator, making it a tricky event to keep tabs on. Decode the stories behind the headlines with The Walrus newsletter. Sign up for The Walrus newsletter and get trusted Canadian journalism straight in your inbox. Recently, sunset chasers have noticed that Google’s new AI summaries started inventing times. “I had the projector set up outside and was waiting for the sun to set,” wrote one Facebook user in Colorado Springs, “but to my surprise I was simply living in the past. AI informed me the sunset had already happened.” It’s a small error, even comic. But these episodes point to a bigger problem: the world’s dominant search engine now struggles over basic facts. The c