Google's AI Overview still can't spell, and the internet is very aware of it

Google AI Overviews hallucinated more than Ken Kesey when it first launched in 2024, fabricating facts about drizzling "glue on pizza," among other offences.And though the Gemini-powered technology has improved its accuracy dramatically over the last two years (unfortunately for publishers), AI Overviews still gets basic questions wrong. And that includes spelling tests.

Google's AI tools remain abysmal at answering questions about spelling, having gone viral two years ago for responding to the question "how many r's are in the word strawberry?" incorrectly. But it's still bad. On Tuesday, X user Naomi Rohatyn tested the large language model's (LLM) current ability to answer to a spelling question."How many e's in the word astronomical?" they asked."There are exactly 2 'e's in the word "astronomical" (a-s-t-r-e-n-o-m-i-c-a-e-l)," replied AI Overview.

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We tried it ourselves, getting the same answer.

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