When did Google get so f-ing weird?
A user reports a frustrating experience with Google Search's AI Overview, which misinterpreted a specific query about a basketball meme as a request for emotional support. The author critiques Google's shift toward AI-driven conversational responses over traditional information retrieval.
Why it matters
This reflects a broader user dissatisfaction with the 'AI-ification' of search engines and the potential loss of utility in favor of simulated empathy.
I recently had an experience while doing a simple Google search that was so profoundly weird that it stopped me in my tracks.
Understanding this Google search experience involves understanding a niche mid-2010s basketball meme, so bear with me for a minute. In 2014 the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Dario Saric, who was playing basketball professionally in Turkey at the time. He announced his intention to finish out his contract in Turkey, meaning he wouldn't come to the USA join the Sixers for a couple of years. There was a joke within the fan community that Dario was "never coming over" which became sort of a shibboleth for part of the fanbase.
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