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AI failures · Harmful output

Google Search AI Overviews — Suggests Eating Rocks and Adding Glue to Pizza

Verified Checked against its sources on 2 sources quoted

Where it happened
United States
Organization
Google
Date
Late May 2024 (examples circulated from about May 23, 2024; Google response May 30, 2024)
Function
Search / Consumer
Where it happened
Web search; information retrieval
System
Google AI Overviews
Technology
Generative AI
Type of failure
Harmful output
Caught by
The public, A journalist

Summary

Shortly after Google rolled out AI Overviews to all US users, people shared erroneous overviews, including an answer to 'How many rocks should I eat?' drawn from satirical content and a suggestion to mix glue into pizza sauce drawn from an old joke forum post. Google said many circulating screenshots were faked but acknowledged that some odd and inaccurate overviews did appear, and said it had made more than a dozen technical changes, including better detection of nonsensical queries, limits on satire and user-generated content, and triggering restrictions.

Consequence

  • Google made technical changes, including better detection of nonsensical queries and limits on satire and humour content.

Who caught it The public, A journalistFound outside the organization

Analysis

What could have been done

Controls over input data

Inputs and source data are complete, current and fit for the use before the AI acts on them.

Overviews drew an answer about eating rocks from satirical content and a suggestion to put glue in pizza sauce from an old joke forum post; Google's fixes included limiting satire, humour and user-generated content.

Testing before use

The system is tested for accuracy, bias and failure modes on representative cases before use.

The erroneous overviews appeared shortly after the rollout to all US users, and Google's changes included better detection of nonsensical queries that should not show an overview, a failure mode that users found after release.

What would likely have prevented it

  • Restrict the sources an AI answer may draw on for factual or safety-relevant questions, excluding satire and unvetted forum posts unless they are labelled as such.
  • Before a broad rollout, test on unusual and nonsensical queries as well as common ones, and decide in advance which kinds of query should receive no AI answer.

What would likely have caught it earlier

  • During a new rollout, sample live AI answers, including answers to rare queries, check them against their sources, and send errors to a named owner who can restrict the feature.

Related reading Most Documented AI Failures Were Found by Someone Else

Key dates

  1. May 23, 2024Event
  2. October 16, 2026Checked against sources
  3. October 18, 2026Checked against sources
  4. October 21, 2026Checked against sources

Developments are added when the record is reviewed. Next review: October 16, 2027.

Evidence

Each passage is quoted from its source. The quoted passages are re-checked against the live pages every month.

  1. Let’s take a look at an example: “How many rocks should I eat?” Prior to these screenshots going viral, practically no one asked Google that question.

    Supports: Rocks example acknowledged by Google

    In other examples, we saw AI Overviews that featured sarcastic or troll-y content from discussion forums. Forums are often a great source of authentic, first-hand information, but in some cases can lead to less-than-helpful advice, like using glue to get cheese to stick to pizza.

    Supports: Glue-on-pizza example acknowledged; cause (forum content)

    We built better detection mechanisms for nonsensical queries that shouldn’t show an AI Overview, and limited the inclusion of satire and humor content.

    Supports: Remediation

    AI Overviews: About last week Google (The Keyword blog) Primary source

  2. "Add some glue," Google answers. "Mix about 1/8 cup of Elmer's glue in with the sauce. Non-toxic glue will work."

    Supports: The glue answer as reported on May 23, 2024

    Google promised a better search experience — now it's telling us to put glue on our pizza The Verge Reporting or analysis

Suggested citation. Eminence Scan, “Google Search AI Overviews — Suggests Eating Rocks and Adding Glue to Pizza”, Eminence Growth Solutions, last verified October 16, 2026, https://eminencegrowthsolutions.com/tools/eminence-scan/record/fail-038/.

Using our research: you may read and quote Eminence Scan with credit to “Eminence Scan, Eminence Growth Solutions” and a link; all other rights reserved. Terms: Using our research.

Spotted an error, or a development we have missed? Report a correction. How we check records: research methodology.