Search produced a Generative AI result with a confabulation: it said that I had written an open source string library known as the "Mylastname C++ String Library" and even gave code examples of how to #include <mylastname.h> and use the API (which looks just like std::string).
I reported this to somebody who forwarded it on to the search team and also blogged about it. After a couple days, my blog was the top search result (not AI, just a search link), and after about 6 months, the generated AI result stopped showing up at all.
They may still be tuning the system but I don't think they are going to be able to create a true, reliable question answering system with what they have now.
If the public looses trust in AI, that is not a problem for Google. Their position in the non-LLM search market is much more dominant than their position in the LLM search market.
Sure, they might continue to have a bad experience here and there and be turned off of it for a while. But I am certain people will periodically come back to try.
The promises of AI are too tantalizing to ignore.
