Yes, we need to accept that it is broken and move on to something that isn't

Some of us left it behind quite awhile ago:-).

Asked Google assistant today what the withdrawal symptoms of Adderall were... got told the suicide prevention hotline. So, that was fun.

Today I was trying to look up the syntax for how to search before a certain date on Google. The google AI overview turned out to be wrong

"nope", but it's a 100-word excerpt from Reddit that pops in just as you're about to click a link and shifts everything down.

Well in fairness I've never been to Italy, so it's possible it doesn't exist.

Does Italy exist?

Google: Blue right?

Well i guess i don't really exist then.

I'm in Finland so I can only give a sad forlorn look toward Italy and say "First time?"

Anyway.

Now:

Me: "What's the weather like today?"

Computer: "It'll be 25°C or so."

Me: "How do you know that?"

Computer: "I looked up your location and queried the national weather service."

Soon:

Me: "What's the weather like today?"

Computer: "It'll be 25°C or so."

Me: "How do you know that?"

Computer: "Fuck if I know. I've just learned that is a thing that people apparently say in situations like this."

Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, Mothman, Italians. All folklore.

I switched to the French search engine Qwant. Much nicer.

It's worse than broken - every time you use google you encourage them, financially, to make it worse. Stock market capitalism. stop doing it.

The CIA: "we fuckin' knew it!"

It has become so bad for results in Spanish too, that I am now self-hosting SearXNG even though I'm the only one using it in my family lol

I did just ask this question of Google assistant and it worked fine. I asked it about rings as well and it explained the composition of rings and pointed to Saturn as the primary example. I definitely think there has been a degradation in service, but the examples given here actually perform just fine.