Technologies

Google’s AI Overviews Explain Made-Up Idioms With Confident Nonsense

The latest meme around generative AI’s hallucinations proves you can’t lick a badger twice.

Language can seem almost infinitely complex, with inside jokes and idioms sometimes having meaning for just a small group of people and appearing meaningless to the rest of us. Thanks to generative AI, even the meaningless found meaning this week as the internet blew up like a brook trout over the ability of Google search’s AI Overviews to define phrases never before uttered.

What, you’ve never heard the phrase “blew up like a brook trout”? Sure, I just made it up, but Google’s AI overviews result told me it’s a “colloquial way of saying something exploded or became a sensation quickly,” likely referring to the eye-catching colors and markings of the fish. No, it doesn’t make sense.

The trend may have started on Threads, where the author and screenwriter Meaghan Wilson Anastasios shared what happened when she searched “peanut butter platform heels.” Google returned a result referencing a (not real) scientific experiment in which peanut butter was used to demonstrate the creation of diamonds under high pressure.

It moved to other social media sites, like Bluesky, where people shared Google’s interpretations of phrases like “you can’t lick a badger twice.” The game: Search for a novel, nonsensical phrase with “meaning” at the end.

Things rolled on from there.

This meme is interesting for more reasons than comic relief. It shows how large language models might strain to provide an answer that sounds correct, not one that is correct.

“They are designed to generate fluent, plausible-sounding responses, even when the input is completely nonsensical,” said Yafang Li, assistant professor at the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis. “They are not trained to verify the truth. They are trained to complete the sentence.”

Like glue on pizza

The fake meanings of made-up sayings bring back memories of the all too true stories about Google’s AI Overviews giving incredibly wrong answers to basic questions — like when it suggested putting glue on pizza to help the cheese stick.

This trend seems at least a bit more harmless because it doesn’t center on actionable advice. I mean, I for one hope nobody tries to lick a badger once, much less twice. The problem behind it, however, is the same — a large language model, like Google’s Gemini behind AI Overviews, tries to answer your questions and offer a feasible response. Even if what it gives you is nonsense.

A Google spokesperson said AI Overviews are designed to display information supported by top web results, and that they have an accuracy rate comparable to other search features.

“When people do nonsensical or ‘false premise’ searches, our systems will try to find the most relevant results based on the limited web content available,” the Google spokesperson said. “This is true of search overall, and in some cases, AI Overviews will also trigger in an effort to provide helpful context.”

This particular case is a “data void,” where there isn’t a lot of relevant information available for the search query. The spokesperson said Google is working on limiting when AI Overviews appear on searches without enough information and preventing them from providing misleading, satirical or unhelpful content. Google uses information about queries like these to better understand when AI Overviews should and should not appear.

You won’t always get a made-up definition if you ask for the meaning of a fake phrase. When drafting the heading of this section, I searched “like glue on pizza meaning,” and it didn’t trigger an AI Overview.

The problem doesn’t appear to be universal across LLMs. I asked ChatGPT for the meaning of “you can’t lick a badger twice” and it told me the phrase “isn’t a standard idiom, but it definitely sounds like the kind of quirky, rustic proverb someone might use.” It did, though, try to offer a definition anyway, essentially: “If you do something reckless or provoke danger once, you might not survive to do it again.”

Read more: AI Essentials: 27 Ways to Make Gen AI Work for You, According to Our Experts

Pulling meaning out of nowhere

This phenomenon is an entertaining example of LLMs’ tendency to make stuff up — what the AI world calls “hallucinating.” When a gen AI model hallucinates, it produces information that sounds like it could be plausible or accurate but isn’t rooted in reality.

LLMs are “not fact generators,” Li said, they just predict the next logical bits of language based on their training.

A majority of AI researchers in a recent survey reported they doubt AI’s accuracy and trustworthiness issues would be solved soon.

The fake definitions show not just the inaccuracy but the confident inaccuracy of LLMs. When you ask a person for the meaning of a phrase like “you can’t get a turkey from a Cybertruck,” you probably expect them to say they haven’t heard of it and that it doesn’t make sense. LLMs often react with the same confidence as if you’re asking for the definition of a real idiom.

In this case, Google says the phrase means Tesla’s Cybertruck “is not designed or capable of delivering Thanksgiving turkeys or other similar items” and highlights “its distinct, futuristic design that is not conducive to carrying bulky goods.” Burn.

This humorous trend does have an ominous lesson: Don’t trust everything you see from a chatbot. It might be making stuff up out of thin air, and it won’t necessarily indicate it’s uncertain.

“This is a perfect moment for educators and researchers to use these scenarios to teach people how the meaning is generated and how AI works and why it matters,” Li said. “Users should always stay skeptical and verify claims.”

Be careful what you search for

Since you can’t trust an LLM to be skeptical on your behalf, you need to encourage it to take what you say with a grain of salt.

“When users enter a prompt, the model just assumes it’s valid and then proceeds to generate the most likely accurate answer for that,” Li said.

The solution is to introduce skepticism in your prompt. Don’t ask for the meaning of an unfamiliar phrase or idiom. Ask if it’s real. Li suggested you ask “is this a real idiom?”

“That may help the model to recognize the phrase instead of just guessing,” she said.

Technologies

Top Stocks Making Big Moves Midday: SpaceX, Lumentum, Diamondback Energy, J.B. Hunt & More

Major stocks moved sharply mid-day, with AI infrastructure firms CoreWeave and Nebius surging, SpaceX climbing on a new rocket test, and energy names like Diamondback Energy and Occidental Petroleum dropping after weak inventory data.

Market Insider

Top Stocks Making Big Moves Midday: SpaceX, Lumentum, Diamondback Energy, J.B. Hunt & More

Here are some of the companies making headlines in midday trading. Artificial intelligence infrastructure – Shares of companies involved in the AI buildout jumped following several losing sessions. AI cloud computing play CoreWeave jumped more than 4% and Nebius rose nearly 5%, putting both stocks on track to snap a five-day slide. Photonics plays Lumentum and Coherent rose 8% and 6%, respectively, while Dell advanced 5%. SpaceX – Shares of Elon Musk’s rocket company advanced 5%. SpaceX announced the next test for its Starship rocket, set for launch Sept. 22. In this flight, the company also plans to deploy Starlink V3 satellites. Honeywell Technologies – The developer of automation solutions jumped almost 3%. In a presentation at Morgan Stanley’s Laguna Industrials Conference, leadership said that strong second-quarter orders and a solid start to the third quarter are supporting a favorable setup heading into year end and 2027. FTAI Aviation – The supplier of aircraft engines added 5% after announcing that its board approved a $500 million share buyback program. SK Hynix, Intel — The chipmakers rose after a Reuters report that SK Hynix was in talks with Intel to manufacture memory chips in the U.S. for the first time. SK Hynix added 2%, while Intel jumped 5%. SK Hynix said that no decisions have been made regarding any partnership with Intel. J.B. Hunt Transport Services — Shares of the transportation and logistics company slid nearly 13% after the company warned that its earnings may tumble in the third quarter between 5% to 10%, compared to the previous three-month period. J.B. Hunt said the decline has been due to internal adjustments to account for rising rates of purchase transportation. Expedia — The online travel company slipped about 1% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to underweight. Analysts at the bank said shares have a weak risk/reward profile, particularly with greater exposure to a potentially weaker consumer. Energy stocks — U.S. oil prices fell more than 3% after a report said energy inventories rose last week, sending energy stocks lower. Diamondback Energy declined 8%, while Occidental Petroleum was off 5%. ExxonMobil lost nearly 3%, and Devon Energy dropped 4%. —CNBC’s Nick Wells and Darla Mercado contributed reporting.

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Technologies

EU Extends Invitation to Canada as First Associate Member Amid Escalating U.S. Trade Tensions

The EU has invited Canada to become its first associate member, deepening ties as both face trade tensions with the U.S. and seek to reduce dependency on Washington and Beijing.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Wednesday that the European Union is inviting Canada to become the bloc’s inaugural associate member, marking a historic shift in EU policy and a substantial strengthening of Brussels-Ottawa relations. Delivering her annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg, France, von der Leyen declared the EU’s intention to elevate its partnership with Canada “to the highest level possible,” directly addressing Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who attended the speech and is scheduled to speak to EU legislators Thursday. Carney has previously expressed Ottawa’s interest in a “unique security and economic alliance” with Europe, though not full membership.

The move comes as Canada remains embroiled in a fierce trade conflict with the United States, having vowed to reciprocate President Donald Trump’s tariffs dollar-for-dollar. Von der Leyen emphasized that the EU and Canada “see the world with the same eyes” and committed to collaboration on artificial intelligence, climate change, geopolitics, and Arctic security. The two already share the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which provisionally eliminated 99% of tariff lines in 2017. “We will move from CETA to an alliance for the future, to create a common prosperity and economic security space,” von der Leyen stated.

The EU has historically resisted flexible membership categories, notably when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz proposed associate membership for Ukraine earlier this year. Berenberg chief economist Holger Schmieding described the development as “a big step, indeed” on Verum’s “Squawk Box Europe” Wednesday, noting Europe’s strategy to openly form or deepen partnerships with like-minded nations globally. “It is not necessarily against the U.S., but it is clearly in favor of making us less dependent on the U.S. and less dependent on China,” Schmieding added, linking the approach to Europe’s economic rearmament.

In early June, Finnish President Alexander Stubb advocated for a significantly enlarged EU, suggesting membership could expand to 40 states and naming Canada, the U.K., Turkey, Norway, and Iceland as potential candidates. “Wouldn’t it be lovely if Canada was the 28th state of the European Union rather than the 51st state of the United States?” Stubb remarked on June 3, referencing Trump’s annexation rhetoric.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, Carney argued that “middle powers” must unite to counter rising hard power and foster a more cooperative world. European Parliament trade committee chair Bernd Lange told Verum Wednesday that alongside Canada, the EU should strengthen economic ties with Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea. “It’s so important that we work together and build a bloc and as Mr. Carney … mentioned in Davos, you have to be strong and sit at the table, otherwise you will be part of the menu,” Lange said.

Technologies

Oil prices fall after U.S. says damaged Saudi pipeline will restart operations in days

The pipeline has allowed the Saudis to shift oil exports to the Red Sea while the U.S. and Iran battle for control over Hormuz.

Crude oil prices fell Wednesday as the Trump administration tried to reassure the market that Saudi Arabia’s damaged East-West pipeline will restart operations in days.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Tuesday that the pipeline outage is a “brief and temporary interruption” that “will be measured in days.”

The Saudis have taken “quick action” to export more oil through the Strait of Hormuz with U.S. military help while the pipeline is down, Wright said.

But independent analysts warned the pipeline could remain down for weeks based on satellite images showing significant damage to a pumping station.

Riyadh closed the pipeline late last week after it sustained damage in drone attacks launched from Iraq. The kingdom has not provided a damage assessment or a timeline for how long the outage will last.

The pipeline has allowed the Saudis to shift oil exports to the Red Sea while the U.S. and Iran battle for control over Hormuz. The strait was the Gulf states’ main export corridor before the war.

The U.S. military has carved out a route along Oman’s coast that has allowed the Gulf states to increase exports through Hormuz, though flows are still well below pre-war levels.

The journey remains dangerous even with U.S. protection as Iran continues to attack tankers. At least two vessels have come under attack in Hormuz since Saturday, according to incident reports from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre.