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Google AI Doesn’t Understand Plugged In

google ai

A couple of days ago, a conscientious Plugged In user wrote to us at [email protected], letting us know that Google’s AI-empowered search was telling lies about us.

Essentially, she was asking what movies Plugged In would recommend for families, and it was telling her that Plugged In really thought highly of One of Them Days, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera and Better Man.

Well. First off, all those movies are rated R—and it’s hard for Plugged In to praise R-rated movies for being family friendly. Second, we don’t really “recommend” movies at all. We have some strong opinions, of course, but our main purpose is to give you, the reader, all the information you need to make a good, strong decision about what’s appropriate for you and your family.

Our own search using Google’s AI turned up similar results. So with that in mind, we thought we’d record a nice, quick little video for you.

Why? Well, we want to let you know that, no, we are not suggesting that you take your 5-year-old to Nosferatu. Also, our own experience with Google’s AI makes us mindful how we should all treat AI—which is still very much in its toddler stage.

So take a look and listen to Bret Eckelberry and Emily Tsiao as they discuss Google’s AI thoughts about Plugged In—and our own thoughts about artificial intelligence.

paul-asay
Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

3 Responses

  1. The big takeaway here is that AI doesn’t “understand” anything. It’s just a prediction algorithm. It sees PI’s movie reviews, so it thinks the user will be happy to be directed to those “recommended” movies. It doesn’t care about whether PI was actually recommending those movies. It just thinks spitting out those results will satisfy the user.

    AI tells us whatever it thinks we want to hear. If you care about the truth, that should scare you.

  2. Thank you for denouncing AI and showing how it can provide users with extremely inaccurate results. This article will discourage students from using AI to write their essays far more effectively than telling them how immoral and dishonest it is.

  3. It is surprising the AI would misinterpret Plugged In. You write very clearly about moral content concerns even though it can be difficult to not give away the plots of the movies. I appreciate what you do and also the takeaways you have. If I really enjoyed a movie I like to know what other Christians thought of it too.

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