Google has launched AI Overviews. And it is not going too well. The feature was launched in the US last week and it will spread globally by the end of 2024, but results so far suggest that it is a mess. Users on social media were quick to point out the funny answers until several people started noting that there were also several concerning ones.AI Overviews is an experimental tool. Once you enter a query, the search engines provide an AI-generated result. However, machine learning algorithms are not conscious. They are trained to recognize words and phrases in certain contexts, so when they are asked something, they create an answer that is expected to fit the query. Even if the AI has to make stuff up. Like creating fake legal cases for a lawyer.Google’s AI Overviews gets the answers from real sites, but AI is not smart enough to recognize serious answers from satirical or comedic ones. So "news" sites like The Onion or social media platforms like Reddit are providing comedic fodder to the clueless AI.                                IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.When asked “How many rocks should I eat each day?” Overviews confidently says that according to UC Berkeley geologists you should eat at least one small rock per day. That’s from The Onion. Asked about how make cheese stick better to pizza, Overviews suggests edible glue. Yes, glue is use in advertisements to make the cheese look more stringy, but the claim actually comes from an 11-year-old post from redditor fucksmith. Please do not trust fucksmith on this.Speaking to BBC News, a Google spokesperson stated the incidents were isolated. "The examples we've seen are generally very uncommon queries, and aren’t representative of most people’s experiences," the statement said.But things are a lot less funny than these examples might seem. The system is fostering misinformation. It claims that Barack Obama was the first Muslim president of the United States. Too bad that it’s not true – Obama is a protestant Christian. A Google search lists the "health benefits" of smoking as well as how running with scissors can be good for you. And how can we not appreciate the suggestion of drinking one's own urine?Given the shambolic results, there has been renewed interest in the question of what the point of AI is. Google claims that it "can take the legwork out of searching" – but if you need to make sure that what you get is accurate, you risk pushing misinformation onto people who do not know or have no time to check sources. And on top of that, AI has a significant carbon footprint. Microsoft, also pushing big on AI, has recently been reported to be failing its pledges to be carbon-negative because of AI.                               IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.A suggestion on how to clean a washing machine recommends using chlorine bleach and vinegar. The expanded answer states that you need to use them one after the other, but it should be screaming about not using them together. Mixing them creates chlorine gas, which is poisonous. And talking about poisonous, Google’s AI Gemini is not doing much better. It recently confused the destroying angel mushroom (Amanita bisporigera) for a white button mushroom. This is one of the most dangerous mushrooms in the world and it can destroy liver and kidney tissues."Doctor Google" has taken a new and dangerous form. But there’s comedy in the advice too, still thanks to satirical websites. AI Overviews will tell you that eating ass has health benefits, making you even less susceptible to the common cold and influenza.                                IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.If you want to argue with science, you better do your own research. 

Birds are dinosaurs. That’s how the Natural History Museum, London kicks off its exciting new exhibition, Birds: Brilliant & Bizarre. From the very first Tyrannosaurus rex fossil dug up, through to the most peculiar adaptation of the dinosaurs’ only extant relatives, the exhibition displays the remarkable diversity of one of Earth’s most successful animal groups – including a majestic specimen of a candyfloss albatross chick that stopped IFLScience in our tracks.You’ll get to meet the “wonderchicken” that lived just before the non-bird dinosaurs were wiped out, putting it among the oldest known modern birds. Plus, explore the incredible adaptations of birds using your nose, from stinky seabird eggs to the strangely sauna-like smell of hoopoe eggs, which are “painted” by the parents with a bacteria-loaded secretion to keep them healthy (possibly because they don’t clean their nests like other birds, the mucky pups). Whoever you are, I would love for folks to come away [from the exhibition] thinking ‘I can do that, and help birds’.Dr Jo Cooper, Senior Curator of Birds, NHMAs well as seeing the many ways in which beaks have evolved to be the best fit for different birds’ lifestyle, you’ll see some of the curious ways they communicate and keep clean. From acid bathing with ants, to drumming cockatoos, you’ll leave the exhibition wondering if extant birds aren’t even weirder than their extinct dinosaur ancestors.“Birds really are the ultimate survivors!” said Dr Alex Burch, Director of Public Programmes at the Museum, in a statement sent to IFLScience. “These seemingly familiar creatures who soundtrack Spring mornings and peck along the pavements carry with them an array of clever adaptations they have developed to secure their place on Earth.”“There’s two key things that I would like people to take away from the exhibition,” Senior Curator of Birds Dr Jo Cooper told IFLScience. “One is that they find birds more amazing, and the feel more connected to them, but also, I’d like them to come away feeling like there’s something that they can do. Whoever you are, I would love for folks to come away thinking ‘I can do that, and help birds’.”Want to check out Birds: Brilliant & Bizarre? Tickets can be booked online now.

Chernobyl’s wild boars have been the subject of a long-standing scientific mystery. While the radioactivity of deer in the region has predictably decreased over the decades, the wild boar remained surprisingly radioactive.It turns out that these Ukrainian hogs aren't only being irradiated from the infamous disaster of 1986, but also the atomic bomb testing from the 1960s.The radioactive riddle was solved in 2023 by a team of scientists at the University of Vienna and Leibniz University Hannover, who managed to track the origin of the radioactivity using cutting-edge measurements.The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 spewed out significant amounts of cesium-137, a radioactive isotope with a half-life of just over 30 years. Since over three decades have passed since the incident, you'd expect levels of the isotope to have dropped by at least 50 percent. However, this decline isn’t seen in the wild boar meat; the radiation levels have remained almost constant over the past 30 years.By using more precise measurements, the team were able to see that another, similar isotope was at play: cesium-135, which has a much longer half-life. This had previously not been appreciated as the isotope is very hard to measure."Since it has such a long half-life and rarely decays, you can't just detect it with radiation detectors. You have to work with mass spectrometric methods and go to relatively great lengths to distinguish it precisely from other atoms," Professor Georg Steinhauser, a radiation expert who moved from Leibniz University Hannover to the University of Vienna in 2022, said in a statement. “We have now succeeded in doing that,” he added.It became apparent that the wild boars of Chernobyl were still riddled with cesium-135, hence why their meat was still producing high levels of radioactivity. However, this begs the question of why the boars are affected, but the deer or other wildlife are seemingly not.It most likely has something to do with the boars’ diet of deer truffles, a fungus that’s found 20 to 40 centimeters (8 to 16 inches) beneath the ground. Cesium trickles down into the soil very slowly, so the underground truffles are only now absorbing the cesium that was released in the Chernobyl incident. Simultaneously, the deer truffles are still loaded with cesium isotopes from nuclear weapons tests during the Cold War.Due to this double dose of slow-release radiation, the levels of contamination seen in the boars have remained relatively constant for decades, while the other wildlife of Chernobyl has managed to recover – and even thrive."If you add up all these effects, it can be explained why the radioactivity of deer truffles - and subsequently of pigs - remains relatively constant over the years," explained Steinhauser. "Our work shows how complicated the interrelationships in natural ecosystems can be, but also precisely that the answers to such riddles can be found if your measurements are sufficiently accurate," he added.The study was published last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

If you were assigning animals to sporting contests based on looks alone, you wouldn’t send a wombat to track and field. With short legs and a mighty butt, wrestling might be a more obvious choice, or perhaps weightlifting. Yet wombats can produce a surprising turn of speed. Some even propose carrots strategically placed at the finish line could have led to a very surprising outcome if someone had smuggled a wombat into the stadium at the Sydney Olympics just before the 100 meters was run.Carers for orphaned wombats are familiar with the “zoomies” where they make short, enthusiastic dashes incongruent with their very low metabolic speed, before turning 180° and running back the way they came. In the wild, startled wombats will head for their burrows at high speed, but as far as we know, there is no record of an athlete trying to beat them.Early this year, Museums Victoria received an inquiry that read: “I've seen the often quoted speed of 40km/h associated with the wombat. I believe this to be a modern myth and have not found a single primary source evidencing this… Can you please help me either find a source or paper where a wombat’s speed is actually measured?” It’s not just a folktale either. The claimed speed appears in multiple textbooks. The Museum’s inquiries of leading wombat researchers met with initial skepticism regarding the claim. A paper published around the same time included the claim in their “wombat myths” category. The ABC then took up the question and cast a wider net, but initially got the same result – scientists agreed that wombats were fast, but not that fast. They could beat Usain Bolt over a short distance, but not 100 meters.Dr David TaggartThat was until The University of Adelaide's Dr David Taggart, who had been out in the field, returned the ABC’s messages. Taggart said he had clocked wombats in the field at 40 kilometers per hour (24.9 miles per hour). If sustained, this would allow a wombat to run 100 meters (328 feet) in 9 seconds, smashing the (human) world record of 9.58 seconds. Since wombats take almost no time to hit top speed, the only question in a human versus wombat race would be whether the wombat could maintain its pace to the finish line.Returning to the source, Taggart told Museums Victoria, “They can run at 40km/h. But they can’t sustain it— it’s a short, fast burst of about 50 metres [164 feet]. If they stay above ground a couple of hundred metres they’ll just stop.” However, he also acknowledged he hadn’t published this astonishing fact anywhere.IFLScience needed to know more, and contacted Taggart ourselves. “I’ve been working on wombats for 30 years,” he told us. “We’ve chased about 12,000 and caught 2,600.”“We routinely drive around in a ute (Australian for pickup truck). The only way to catch a wombat is by surprise. We have two runners with nets, who jump off the back and race after it.”Timing the wombats’ speed was not the point of the exercise – catching them to investigate their ecology and study assisted breeding techniques was. Nevertheless, the team took notice of the speedometer when ute and wombat were moving together, and say speeds of 40 kilometers per hour (24.9 miles per hour) were standard.Most of the time the wombat will be too close to its burrow to catch it. Guarding the hole doesn’t work, since they often have several entrances. However, in the breeding season wombats go further afield in search of love. In this case the team can often pursue them until they stop for a breather.Taggart doesn’t think that even in a country willing to do almost anything for Olympic success Australia should be looking at conferring honorary human status on wombats. “They could beat Usain Bolt over a short distance, but not 100 meters,” he told IFLScience, while also noting wombats are reaching that speed on rough ground and “can turn on a 2 cent piece” (or would be able to if Australia hadn’t abolished them decades ago).Almost all Taggart’s work has been on southern hairy-nosed wombats. The northern hairy-nosed is far too endangered to risk bothering in this way. He told Museums Victoria less was known about the common (also known as the bare-nosed) wombat’s speed as they “live in more vegetated areas so […] they’ll disappear into the scrub [before top speed can be measured].” However, since the bare-nosed wombats grow to be larger than their southern hairy-nosed cousins, there is a fair chance they can cover more territory as well.            A bare-nosed wombat keeping up with a car.Like humans, any animal species will contain a variation of athletic aptitude. There’s a fair chance some Usain Wombolt that could leave its counterparts in the dust has evaded Taggart’s attention.Wombats’ surprising speed has sometimes been attributed to the need to get away from dingoes, but Taggart doubts "one dingo could hurt [an adult]. It would have to be a pack… but dingoes do hunt in packs.” The speed has also been attributed to a legacy of needing to outrun thylacines, but it’s also unlikely speed would have been the best defense against an ambush predator. Taggart noted that Indigenous Australians hunted wombats, adding, “They taste like lamb.” We refrained from asking him how he knows this. Perhaps evolving to run fast was easier than to taste bad.Taggart didn’t publish his speed observations, considering it unimportant, but in response to the interest generated by the articles one of his students suggested acquiring a speed camera. “We’re thinking about it,” Taggart told IFLScience. Crowdfunding would probably raise the money easily, but: “We’d have to get it through an ethics committee,” he told IFLScience.

Remember George Floyd? The guy who the media claims died by a policeman doing his job rather than the concoction of fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system? Floyd’s family just authorized a biopic titled “Daddy Changed the World” to be created by Radar Pictures, 8 Queens Film & Media productions and Night Fox Entertainment. The biopic, created with the help of Floyd’s daughter Gianna and her mother, Roxie Washington, who will serve as producers, is set to dramatize the life of Floyd and emphasize the leftist narrative of police brutality. If you were looking for a one-stop shop of propaganda, lies and virtue signaling, this biopic will be just that! According to Variety,  “The biopic will apparently not portray Floyd as a perfect person, but rather a father with human flaws, whose horrific death changed the world. It will not be a traditional biopic, more a ‘gritty drama of a man and his community thrust into the fiery light of history.’” In a statement, Washington said the following about the film: We are excited the world will see the real, jovial, and loving George we know. This film will humanize him, embody the essence of his life, and hopefully reignite efforts to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. It’s time for justice and equality for all. We need to make changes swiftly. No other child should lose their father like Gianna did. We thank everyone who stood with us and protested. George’s legacy will live on through this film. What legacy? The legacy of breaking the law? The legacy of framing a story so that it pushes an agenda and movement of “defunding the police?” Need I remind everyone that Floyd was a criminal. He served literally eight jail terms for things like drug possession and theft. This is not some hero that we should be honoring.  This is insane if you ask me.    

CNN Newsroom host Jim Acosta and senior political commentator and occasionally co-host of The View Ana Navarro sought on Friday to explain the “disconnect” between former President Donald Trump’s “rhetoric… about migrants” and minority support for him. Navarro claimed such voters have “a very stupid attitude” and suggested they are on a doomed mission to appease racists who shoot up Walmarts. Acosta took it for granted that a disconnect exists, “I mean, you and I've talked about this many times about his rhetoric, the rhetoric he uses to talk about migrants and so on and I just have to ask you, Ana, I mean, when you look at the poll numbers and you see, if you break out the demographics, Trump is doing better among Latinos. He is doing better among African American voters and it's certainly is a threat to the president's reelection campaign. Is there a disc— I mean what do you make of this disconnect.”     Navarro rattled off a number of things, starting with: I think America has a little bit of amnesia when it comes to Donald Trump and frankly, being in a courtroom for the last 20 days, I think, has helped him because he's not been out in rallies saying the stupid stuff he says and the incendiary, outrageous things he says on a daily basis. We've been focusing on Michael Cohen, we’ve been focusing on Stormy Daniels. We haven't been focusing on the things that Donald Trump says. Another thing is, I think at this point in 2024, this is kinda baked in, people already know the guy’s a misogynist, they already know he's a racist, they already know he says divisive things and they seem not to take him literally or seriously. They think it’s, kind of, part of a clown act, entertainment.” She also claimed, “this is the truth and you and I know this as Latinos, there are some Latino immigrants who forget they came here as immigrants and who want to shut the door behind them, and who think being anti-immigrant somehow is going to make them pass as more American, pass as whatever.” Navarro kept rolling, “And that's a very stupid attitude to have because what folks don’t realize is that when the guy drives thousands of miles to go hunt down Latinos in a Walmart in Texas. He doesn't care when you came here he doesn't care what your accent is, what he's looking for is “Does it look like me, does it sound like?” That's what he's looking for. So, you know, when people are anti-something, they're not asking for your papers, they're just anti-that group.” While decent people may consider it outrageous that Navarro appeared to put Trump voters into boxes of either racists or self-haters who are trying to appease racists, Acosta was not going to bring sanity to the conversation. Instead, the anchor agreed, muttering “right” and “yeah” as Navarro rambled. Here is a transcript for the May 24 show: CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta 5/24/2024 10:26 AM ET JIM ACOSTA: I mean, you and I've talked about this many times about his rhetoric, the rhetoric he uses to talk about migrants and so on and I just have to ask you, Ana, I mean, when you look at the poll numbers and you see, if you break out the demographics, Trump is doing better among Latinos. He is doing better among African American voters and it's certainly is a threat to the president's reelection campaign. Is there a disc— I mean what do you make of this disconnect.” ANA NAVARRO: Well, a few things. One is I think America has a little bit of amnesia when it comes to Donald Trump and frankly being in a courtroom for the last 20 days, I think, has helped him because he's not been out in rallies saying the stupid stuff he says and the incendiary, outrageous things he says on a daily basis. We've been focusing on Michael Cohen, we’ve been focusing on Stormy Daniels. We haven't been focusing on the things that Donald Trump says. Another thing is, I think at this point in 2024, this is kinda baked in, people already know the guy’s a misogynist, they already know he's a racist, they already know he says divisive things and they seem not to take him literally or seriously. They think it’s, kind of, part of a clown act, entertainment and then the third thing, Jim, and this is the truth and you and I know this as Latinos, there are some Latino immigrants who forget they came here as immigrants and who want to shut the door behind them and, who think being anti-immigrant somehow is going to make them pass as more American, pass as whatever. And that's a very stupid attitude to have because what folks don’t realize is that when the guy drives thousands of miles to go hunt down Latinos in a Walmart in Texas. He doesn't care when you came here he doesn't care— ACOSTA: Right. NAVARRO: -- what your accent is, what he's looking for is “Does it look like me, does it sound like?” That's what he's looking for. ACOSTA: Yeah. NAVARRO: So, you know, when people are anti-something, they're not asking for your papers, they're just anti-that group.

Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker (R) announced on Thursday his daughter and son-in-law, who were serving as missionaries in Haiti, had been killed in a recent gang attack as the crisis in the Caribbean nation continues to spiral out of control. "My heart is broken in a thousand pieces. I’ve never felt this kind of pain. Most of you know my daughter and son-in-law Davy and Natalie Lloyd are full time missionaries in Haiti. They were attacked by gangs this evening and were both killed. They went to Heaven together," Baker wrote on Facebook."Please pray for my family we desperately need strength. And please pray for the Lloyd family as well. I have no other words for now," he added.'Kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens.'While Haiti has long experienced instability, especially after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, the chaos reached new heights earlier this year after gangs coordinated a major attack on prisons and the airport in Port-au-Prince. The attacks were designed to force Ariel Henry to resign while he was out of country trying to secure a security deal with Kenya to deploy police to help combat the gangs.Henry resigned a few days later after it became clear he would be unable to return to Haiti and maintain any semblance of control.Reuters reported civilian contractors are on the ground in Haiti to build the base at Toussaint Louverture International Airport that will be used by Kenyan security forces. Around 1,000 policemen will be deployed to help the beleaguered Haitian National Police."This mission is made possible due to the continued coordination and support with the Haitian stakeholders who are working to keep the airport open and operations continuing. The United States will continue to provide robust and multi-faceted support to Haiti as it moves toward a more secure and prosperous future," said U.S. Southern Command.The U.S. State Department issued a "Do Not Travel" advisory to Haiti in July 2023 due to "kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure." Nonessential personnel were evacuated from the embassy. "Kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include U.S. citizens. Kidnappers may use sophisticated planning or take advantage of unplanned opportunities, and even convoys have been attacked. Kidnapping cases often involve ransom negotiations and U.S. citizen victims have been physically harmed during kidnappings. Victim’s families have paid thousands of dollars to rescue their family members," the warning explained.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A Mexican national breached a United States Air Force base this month while on the run from Border Patrol agents, a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection recently told the New York Post.The suspect, a 17-year-old male, fled on foot after the vehicle he was a passenger in was pulled over by Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas. According to authorities, the teenager hopped over a fence surrounding the Laughlin Air Force Base.'Tracked by USBP canine teams.'A press release from the base stated that an individual "breached" the property on May 23. The suspect was being pursued by Border Patrol agents "adjacent to the installation North gate who jumped the installation perimeter fence, entering Laughlin AFB.""The person was tracked by USBP canine teams on base and was successfully apprehended" approximately an hour after breaching the base, according to the press release.The Post reported that four adult males who were in the vehicle with the teenager were also taken into custody. Sources told the news outlet that all of those involved are believed to be in the country illegally. "A cordon was established adjacent to base housing to ensure the safety of residents during the incident," the base stated.This month, two Jordanian nationals attempted to breach the Quantico Marine Corps Base near Triangle, Virginia. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently confirmed that the men are illegal immigrants.Enforcement and Removal Operations Washington spokesperson James Covington stated, "Marine Corps Base authorities notified ERO Washington, D.C. of the apprehensions.""Deportation officers from ERO Washington, D.C. responded and arrested both individuals without incident. Both individuals will remain in ERO custody pending removal proceedings," Covington added.One of the men was apprehended in April after he crossed from Mexico into California illegally, but he was given a Notice to Appear and released into the country. The other male was in the U.S. on an expired student visa.On Wednesday, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) sent a letter to President Joe Biden demanding a full briefing regarding the attempted infiltration, Blaze News previously reported. "I am deeply concerned about what appears to be a series of recent attempts to gain unauthorized access to United States military installations, including two in the Commonwealth of Virginia," Youngkin wrote. "The attempted breach at Quantico, and the federal government's silence on the immigration status of the individuals involved, reiterates the gravity of your failure to secure the southern border, and to provide state governments notice of illegal migrant relocations so I can protect the safety of all Virginians."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Morgan Spurlock of 'Super Size Me' Dies at 53

AP Serves Up Their Daily Example of Why 'Journalism' is Beyond Repair (This Time About Alito's Flag)