Google's AI Overviews search feature made a significant error regarding Thursday's plane crash, incorrectly identifying Airbus as responsible instead of Boeing, raising serious concerns about generative AI reliability.
Google's AI Overviews feature, which debuted in 2024, made a significant error on June 12, 2025, when it falsely claimed that an Airbus A330-243 aircraft was involved in the tragic crash of Air India Flight 171, when in fact a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff in Ahmedabad. According to screenshots posted on Reddit, Google's AI confidently and incorrectly stated that "the most recent fatal Airbus crash occurred on Thursday, June 12, 2025, in India," while in reality, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flight claimed 241 lives out of 242 people on board, as reported by NDTV on June 13.
The erroneous information did not appear in all search results—due to the non-deterministic nature of generative AI, outputs varied even for identical inputs. Following user outrage, Google manually removed the incorrect response and stated to Ars Technica: "As with all Search features, we rigorously make improvements and use examples like this to update our systems. This response is no longer showing." The AI Overviews issue raises serious questions not only for Google's reputation but also for Airbus, which could potentially suffer harm from being falsely associated with a fatal crash instead of its main competitor.
Sources:
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Ryan Whitwam
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Chris Smith
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