The latest AI trend is a funny one, as a user has discovered that you can plug a made-up phrase into Google and append it with “meaning,” then Google’s AI Overview feature will hallucinate a meaning for the phrase.
Historian Greg Jenner kicked off the trend with a post on Bluesky in which he asked Google to explain the meaning of “You can’t lick a badger twice.” AI Overview helpfully explained that this expression means that you can’t deceive someone a second time after they’ve already been tricked once — which seems like a reasonable explanation, but ignores the fact that this idiom didn’t exist before this query went viral.
Since then, people have been having a lot of fun getting AI Overview to explain idioms like “A squid in a vase will speak no ill” (meaning that something outside of its natural environment will be unable to cause harm, apparently) or “You can take your dog to the beach but you can’t sail it to Switzerland” (which is, according to AI Overview, a fairly straightforward phrase about the difficulty of international travel with pets).
It doesn’t work for all cases though, as some phrases don’t return AI Overview results. “It’s wildly inconsistent,” cognitive scientist Gary Marcus said to Wired, “and that’s what you expect of GenAI.”
Jenner points out that as entertaining as this is, it does indicate some of the pitfalls of relying too heavily on AI generated sources like AI Overview for information. “It’s a warning sign that one of the key functions of Googling – the ability to factcheck a quote, verify a source, or track down something half remembered – will get so much harder if AI prefers to legitimate statistical possibilities over actual truth,” Jenner wrote.
This isn’t the first time that people have pointed out the limitations of information provided by AI, and AI Overview in particular. When AI Overview was launched, it infamously suggested that people should eat one small rock per day and that they could put glue on their pizza, though these particular answers were quickly removed.
Since then, Google has said in a statement to Digital Trends that the majority of AI Overviews provide helpful and factual information, and that it was still gathering feedback on its AI product.
For now, though, let this serve as a reminder to double check the information which appears in the AI Overview box at the top of Google results, as it may not be accurate.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.