People used to find out about restaurant deals on websites or social media. But AI assistants from Google and other companies that are prone to “hallucinations” appeared, and everything went awry.
The Italian restaurant (pizzeria) Stefanina’s Wentzville in Montana, USA, faced a number of angry customers who visited the restaurant, did not get what they wanted, and took out their anger on the staff — the offers that the AI told them about simply did not exist. Conclusion pleads potential visitors to stop using AI to check for interesting things on the menu.
“Please do not use Google AI to find out about our special offers. Please go to our Facebook page or our website. Google AI is not accurate and tells people about special offers that don’t exist, which causes angry customers to yell at our employees. We can’t control what Google posts or says, and we won’t take into account special offers with Google AI,” the restaurant urges on Facebook.
Eva Gannon, whose family owns the restaurant, said First Alert, Google’s artificial intelligence was constantly telling customers about unrealistic offers and inventing menu items. In one example, Google’s AI claimed that Stefanina’s was offering a large pizza for the price of a small one — apparently, many people would be angry if they didn’t get such a gift.
This is far from the first business to suffer from AI’s tricks. In June, a Minnesota-based solar energy company filed a lawsuit against Google for “defamation” — AI Overviews allegedly told customers falsehoods about the company that harmed its business. Australian bank suffered from AI in another wayReplacing technical support workers with AI led to an increase in the number of calls and overtime for the rest of the team. As a result, those who were fired were apologized for and called back.
The use of AI tools seems convenient and exciting, but you should be aware of the possible inaccuracy of their data and always check the advice in traditional sources before using them. It’s ironic that the incident with AI and the restaurant happened just as Google extends AI Mode search to 180 more countries and the most expensive version of this service currently offers restaurant search and table reservations.
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