--- title: "During Huge Demo, Google’s AI Provides Idiotic Advice About Photography That Would Destroy Film" description: "This week, in Google's own marketing materials showing off \"search in the Gemini era,\" the company made yet another blunder." date: "2024-05-15" modified: "2024-05-15" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-ai-idiotic-advice-photography" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "gemini" - "Google" - "search engine" - "the digest" --- # During Huge Demo, Google’s AI Provides Idiotic Advice About Photography That Would Destroy Film ![This week, in Google's own marketing materials showing off "search in the Gemini era," the company made yet another blunder.]() *\Image: Google\* ## Over Exposed Google is hellbent on crowding out search results with AI-generated "advice" — which is often flawed, sometimes with devastating consequences. This week, during its splashy I/O conference, the company made yet another blunder. As [*The Verge* reports](), the tech giant showed off its Gemini AI offering suggestions for what to do when the lever on a manual film camera isn't moving all the way — except that it made some genuinely horrible suggestions. Among Gemini's dubious "things you can try," was a highlighted bullet point to "open the back door" of the camera to gently remove the jammed film — which as any film photographer knows, would expose most if not the entire roll, thereby ruining any photos you may have taken so far. The blunder highlights glaring issues with the current crop of AI tools, which are still prone to confidently misleading users by hallucinating facts or wildly misinterpreting existing information on the web. ## Searching for Meaning It's not even the first time Google has been caught showing its AI give misleading advice. Last year, Google's chatbot, which was called Bard at the time, stated that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope took the first picture of an exoplanet, or a planet outside of our solar system — [which is blatantly false](). More recently, the company [started testing its experimental AI search]() feature called AI Overviews — formerly known as Search Generative Experience, in yet another rebrand — on unsuspecting users who didn't opt into the test. Unfortunately, the feature is still stuck in the Stone Age. It can't even [reliably name fruits]() that end with "um." Earlier this year, it was even caught [pushing malware-laden spam sites](). With Google doubling down on AI, the future of the search we've come to love — and then tolerate — could soon look dramatically different. And that doesn't bode well, considering its traditional search has [already been overrun with AI-generated junk]() and scammers that exploit search engine optimization. In short, we highly advise against using Google's flawed AI to get help with a new hobby, especially when it involves risking an entire roll of film. Instead, we recommend the assistance of human experts who aren't [glorified plagiarism machines](). **More on Google:** *[Google Execs Say Employees Will Be Rewarded for Huge Profits With Fewer Layoffs]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()