Google’s AI told me to put glue in pizza, so I put glue in pizza

• Google’s AI search results indicate that you can put glue in pizza sauce to keep the cheese from slipping.
• Google had obviously ingested a Reddit comment that was meant to be a joke, but the AI ​​didn’t catch it.
• I still went ahead and made a pizza with 1/8 cup of glue. What does all this mean for the future?

Google launched its AI search results last week, and people noticed that they were giving extremely erroneous results. It’s said that yes, a dog has played in the NHL, that running with scissors has health benefits, and that 17 U.S. presidents have attended the University of Wisconsin.

But the most ridiculous of all was someone who noted on helpful answer. Add glue to pizza sauce:

I knew my mission: I had to prepare the pizza with Google glue. (Don’t do it try this at home! I risked it for the sake of the story, but you shouldn’t!)

I used Google to make sure the “non-toxic” glue was indeed semi-safe to eat. Google’s AI response indicated that small amounts could cause stomach upset, but not, say, death. That’s good enough for me.

(Since I know you’re wondering, yes, I ate the paste as a kid. I loved it. It was minty. I only stopped because of the shame of the other first graders .But now I’m an adult and I can’t be ashamed of eating glue pizza.)

I assembled my ingredients from my local grocery store: shredded cheese, marinara sauce, a scoop of pizza dough, and, of course, non-toxic school glue (which I already had at home).

OBVIOUS WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. DO NOT EAT GLUE. SERIOUSLY.

And to anyone who feels compelled to point out that I shouldn’t have used jarred sauce or pre-shredded cheese: please…keep in mind that I’m eating glue here.

I roll out the dough, now to mix the sauce and glue.

Google said to use 1/8 cup of glue, but not the amount of sauce. I noticed that the pizza would need about 1/2 cup of red sauce.

I had imagined the amount would be more like a “light drizzle” of glue. But 1/8 cup equals 2 tablespoons, and that seemed a bit more than I expected.

It turns out a beautiful orange color, like a vodka sauce. While mixing and spreading, I didn’t notice any significant change in the consistency of the sauce.

Now let’s move on to the cheese and fresh basil. Ready for the oven!

I cooked it at 450 degrees for 12 minutes, which turned out to be a little too long: it was slightly burnt.

When I opened the oven door, I was hit with a blast of steam and smoke, and momentarily panicked. I remember when “NyQuil chicken” was a viral meme, doctors warned that the real danger was lung damage from the toxic fumes.

By heating the chemicals in the glue, would I create some sort of toxic gas?

Well, let’s hope not! Here we go!

Finally, the taste test:

My verdict: It wasn’t the best homemade pizza I’d eaten — I couldn’t necessarily tell if the glue was the problem or if the cheap jarred sauce could have used a little more seasoning. (In marinara’s defense, it’s hard to complain about the taste when you add glue.)

But also… was it pretty OK? I only had a few injections because I was afraid of poisoning myself.

More importantly: did the glue prevent the cheese from sliding? You bet it does:

What does all this mean? For me personally, that means I’m a glue-eating idiot. But what does this mean for Google and the future of AI search?

These wacky AI responses are funny but apparently rare. A Google spokesperson told Business Insider: “The examples we’ve seen are generally very rare queries and are not representative of most people’s experiences. The vast majority of AI insights provide high-quality information, with links to dig deeper across the web. “

But still: Google’s AI spits out crazy answers often enough that it’s safe to say there’s user distrust of AI-based answers (for now). The pizza glue controversy is silly – no one with three brain cells would actually do that – but we can assume that AI also gives answers that are less obviously wrong, but still wrong.

It seems the origin of pizza glue was a joke made on Reddit 11 years ago about adding glue to sauce. The fact that Google’s AI search answers are based on Reddit should be largely a good thing: Reddit is full of helpful answers on how to do things and other common dilemmas. But Google’s AI failed to understand that this response from Reddit was clearly a joke.

What does this mean for public trust in Google and AI? I am not sure! This week’s OpenAI-Scarlett Johansson debacle likely had a much larger effect on concerns about whether the companies behind AI are operating ethically, regardless of what actually happened.

Presumably, Google AI search results will improve and these strange bad results will become increasingly rare. Many people are rightly concerned that “letting Google do the Google search for you” would have a very bad effect on the web as we know it. Depriving clicks to websites that actually provide the information that powers AI results will likely have unfortunate long-term effects.

If you want to hear more intelligent thoughts on this topic, I recommend the most recent episode of the “Search Engine” podcast on this topic. It would be great to listen to it while you cook your own home, non-glue pizza.

Finally, I must say once again: DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF. DON’T EAT PIZZA WITH GLUE.