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A GOOGLE REPRESENTATIVE in Ireland has said that bizarre and inaccurate results produced through AI are “not typical” of the experience of most users on the search engine.
Google recently launched a feature in the US called AI Overview that involves AI generating a summary of results for the search term that a user enters.
However, users have reported cases of receiving inaccurate or nonsensical ‘summaries’.
TDs and senators on the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise met this morning to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on businesses with representatives from Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.
Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly raised the problems with the AI Overview feature with Google’s Public Policy Manager in Ireland, Ryan Meade, who was in attendance.
“What I have read shows that it gives results that can be seen as misleading, like adding glue to pizza to keep the cheese on it, or more seriously, returning results that would say that serial killers or nuclear war have benefits,” O’Reilly said.
She said content like that is “misleading and deeply unhelpful” and asked if Google intends to launch the feature in Ireland and if it has any concerns in relation to that misinformation.
Meade outlined that AI Overview was recently rolled out in the US but has not been launched in Europe.
“It provides an AI-generated overview of the search results that you get for a particular query. It’s been in testing for a while and one of the reasons why it’s being rolled out is that it’s very helpful to users and also they are more likely to click on the links for further context that are provided within the AI overview,” he said.
“Since it’s been rolled out, there have been a few stories about specific queries that have been producing misleading results. Just to describe the way the system works – it is a large language model producing a piece of text that is based on the results that are returned for a particular query.
“These cases are not typical of most users’ experience with the product in that they’re in most cases searches for uncommon pieces of information with a limited number of search results.
“But I think the important thing is that we are continually refining these models and continually testing. That product is part of our lab experiments, in which each of these instances is fed back into the systems that review and refine and make the system safer.”
He said he did not have any information about whether Google intends to launch the feature here but that if it did, it would be “in conjunction with discussions with regulators”.
In response, O’Reilly said that reports about certain results “wouldn’t massively fill me with confidence”.
“I appreciate your point in relation to it being a discrete and a small number, but for some of those results, which I’m not going to ventilate here because they don’t deserve an airing, it is incredibly disruptive,” she said.
Meade said that “mixed in to some of those genuine cases there have been some mock-ups of results that weren’t actually returned”.
All three tech companies present made cases to the politicians about why they believe AI will be an important part of work in the years to come.
Sasha Rubel, Head of AI/Gen AI Policy for the EMEA region at Amazon Web Services, said that regulators should support innovation and experimentation in AI.
“We need innovation-friendly regulation; effective-risk based legislation for AI that protects citizens and their rights and encourages trust while also allowing for experimentation and practical application of AI,” Rubel said.
Similarly, Kieran McCorry, National Technology Officer at Microsoft Ireland, said Microsoft believes there is merit in regulators setting up a committee “focused on the use and deployment of AI, open to all voices and all communities”.
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Im not a Dub, but that is brilliant! I think it translates all over Ireland, at home we have “”the lake” :D almost as dirty as the canal but you didnt care! The sin was shining, we were off to the lake!
I’d love it if even just one of these kids took up diving full-time and it changed their lives. Future Olympians? Maybe
I don’t mean to put a downer on the video – it’s well shot and the story is well told – but it was only a matter of weeks ago The Journal were posting stories about how another life was lost in Irish water day after day. At home and in the UK we had multiple drownings a day – young and old – and the comment threads here were filled with “So so sad – RIP”. This is not responsible swimming. Industrial buildings, bridges and unsupervised filthy water is not place for young people to spend their days. How a bit of romanticising of days gone by can make you forget the flip side…
Great video. Impressive stuff…the fearlessness of youth … no thought of consequences … pure joy
It’s a pity we can’t channel their energy, nerve and talent and give Tom Daley a run for his money
Love that short. Its a reminder that we were all teenagers and did complely mad things for no other reason than we could. We can’t wrap people in cotton wool.
This was the best feeling ever when I was younger, it was were some of my best memories are !! The girls were just as fearless as the boys!
How come the video didn’t mention ‘The Pike’ both my husband and dad refer to swimming in the canals as kids and talk about this mythical pike which according to my husband was the size of a small whale. Nobody ever caught it but everybody saw it and apparently it stills swims the canal – it’s called ‘The General’. Course that would make it 35 years old at least but sure maybe all the rubbish/chemicals in the canal turned it into superfish :)
We had one in the Grand Canal called Jaws. Nobody ever caught him but rumour was he had a taste for dogs.
Excellent video
Beautifully shot, nostalgia-tinged video, although I feel that the people interviewed in it and the kids you see in it are culturally miles apart. If you saw these lads running amok around the Spencer Dock area when the weather was good this summer, you’d have seen the how state of the place afterwards was appalling, destroyed with litter, dirty clothes, empty beer cans and wrappers lying around all over the place. Oh, and they were shouting abuse at passers by, there was that as well.
Boring video,lovely mushy music and gurriers in black and white,made by somebody who doesn’t live near the canal.
You,put,a,space,after,every,comma.
shame they don’t film gangs of these kids harassing people around the city while they are on their jumping sprees…. the garda can do nothing as they run amok stealing from people eating their lunch and generally causing trouble…. I have seen this first hand, just saying!
Very true Paul unfortunately many people commenting on these young lads and the romance of it all haven’t had to deal with the consequences of their actions. They intimidate people climb onto private boats leave rubbish behind them throw cans into the river they love so well. But I guess when your living miles away from the reality it’s easy to be nostalgic.
Fab video.
You should see where they swim along the canal in Clondalkin…horses getting washed no further than 100metres up from them. Theres no way thats safe!
I’m sure the horses don’t mind.
Ah they might not mind….. but are they safe? :D
So cute, until their breaking into your car when they dry off!
way to turn a sweet story of friendship into something negative. Geez!
Grand canal is on the South side no the north inner city
Only idiots feel no fear
How’s that bubble you live in!?
Roman this Russian wisdom of yours doesn’t suit here. Of course they afraid but dare anyways – all the friends are watching! ;-)
say whatever You want but it is truth.
P.S. im not Russian. :D
That scene at 1.22 – my heart stopped!
I never swam in the canals but my dad would tell me about swimming in the canal at Rathmines during his lunch hour in the 50′s and 60′s.
Great video!
Amazing what some music and editing does…if only people realised the hassle so many of these kids have given to local businesses
Are you mad showing that video. I guarantee it will lead to an increase in swimming and especially diving. Today’s kids don’t need any encouragement to be dare-devils. I would die of fright if I saw any of my grandkids diving off that crane.
Yeah, this and every red bull sports video ever should be banned. /sarc
Out of all that video, about two dives are made, the rest of the kids look like they are well versed in high water jumps. They form there body right before they enter. Yeah there’s risk but so is driving on the M50.
maybe it will get kids outdoors instead of playing computer games.
Quiet you.
Margaret,if the worst thing these young men do is swim in a dirty river l say go ahead.When you look around and see what they could be doing shooting,stabing,robbing old people.l know what l would prefare to see,the only harm they are doing is to them self.
Apart from the safety comments all the other negative comments on this small piece smacks of “you lot are too poor and downtrodden to be allowed adventure and fun”. There isn’t a lot to do on a hot day in the inner city so these young people make their own fun. Bet any one of those kid’s would jump into the Liffey to save someone from drowning. To the thumbs down i say Live and let live.
1970s great times for me, thanks for refreshing my mind.
We used to pack our bags, towel, shorts and runners and head down to the 12th lock on the royal canal when we were kids! Some craic we had! When the M50 bridge was built we had a new platform to jump off! Never had the balls to do it!
Fantastic video, brings back some great memories!
My whole life I have seen the Lads jumping into the canal. I just think of it as part of summer and the fact that Grand Canal Dock and the new bridge on the Liffey is part of a community.
Brilliant piece really enjoyed it ! More please Christine.
It’s very sad too see the negative comments… Some call these people thugs… I call them young boys looking for some fun… The city centre is a tough place for any child but it’s riddled with hard working honest people too… My car was broken into in malahide are they thugs there too??? Litter and beer cans are in every housing estate in this country is climbing illegal now? I hope one day these people can look back and remember there childhood and show there children the fun they had… And look at the comments of you very short sighted people and say they never stole and worked for everything. Remember you guys most likely have children and let’s hope you never see them in a court room… Cause it can happen too anybody not just the grafters of the inner city.
The description promises the most gorgeous 3 mins 30 seconds you will spend today. Can you change this to the biggest waste of time if you end up watching this rubbish?
Imagine being motivated to post such a comment. Your day must be shocklingly shit. Hope it goes better for you.
Loved this….it’s what us 60s kids did at Royal Canal Phibsboro…that and a football…out all day n night.
Not forgetting the Grand Canal harbour at Guinness Brewery, probably the dirtiest place in Ireland to swim. Full of oil from the barges yet kids still swam in it
I love simple stories of friendship and reminiscence. this qualifies.
Beautiful!
Beautifully shot.
Sorry to say that it fails to capture what it was like years back, it’s too contrived for want of a better word. I mentioned in another jourmal item about swimming in the nuddy at Dolphins Barn Bridge and all the young wans screaming laughing at the mickies but this video is sterile. The voice-over captures some of the magic however :-)
Sorry but it just seems stupid to be romanticising some of the dangerous jumps in this. If they had broken their legs the cameraman would have to feel partly responsible for encouraging them.
I doubt any encouragement was needed.
Wellies and puddles Is as far as I went
Not like when I was young and full of adventure. I am now 74 but I remember swimming in the Liffey from the steps at Queen Street Bridge and Watling Street bridge, diving off the Guinness wharf where they loaded the barges from the Guinness mini train. We dived off Queen Street bridge and Watling Street. We swam In the Grand canal at the back of Guinnesses. If we had a few coppers we would go to Tara Street baths on a Saturday morning or maybe the Iveagh baths. We did not have expensive rubber suits – no, just a pair of togs and if we were lucky a towel. This was part of growing up in Dublin in the 1940′s and 50′s. Dublin in the rare auld times. How times have changed.
Wish I was this brave at any age ,amazing ,no fear ,
I thought people jumped off the bridge to kill themselves, so does that mean when people jump off the bridge they don’t actually die?
it is what it is kids do it the length of the canal,its fact,any hot day the place is thronged with kids from all over dublin
Bloody brilliant ! Hope all the lads are ok and mind yourself. Well shot, good edit. Don’t look back. Dennis Earlie Blewdoor Productions Kerry
I used to swim in the quarry at the back of Merville dairy back in the late ’50s and 60s,used to climb up the stone cliff, there was a rock stuck out, and meself and me pals as a diving board, and dive from a hight of 20 feet, the little bridge across the quarry was a bit scary about 50 or 60 foot drop, I jumped off it twice for a bet, and thank god I survived.
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