It’s not just generative AI that occasionally hallucinates. Microsoft search engine Bing told some users yesterday that the country Australia does not exist. This riffs on a tongue-in-cheek (to some) conspiracy theory that has been circulating online since 2017 - although its origins may go back much further.
Australian users of Bluesky and Mastodon were shocked yesterday to discover that Bing told them they were in a country that didn't actually exist.
According to The Guardian, Microsoft's search engine flatly said "doesn't exist" in response to an unusual query about the world's sixth-largest country. Bing says this is based on multiple sources.
Conspiracy theories about Australia's non-existence can reportedly be traced back to a user on the Flat Earth Society forum, who said everything about the country was made up, photos were faked and anyone claiming to be from Australia was a real government agent. One would think this was a trick, but given its origin, who knows?
A subsequent Facebook post emerged claiming Australia was "one of the biggest scams ever", a plot hatched by the British to make people think criminals were being sent there rather than being thrown into the sea.
"This is a cover-up of one of the largest mass murders in history, perpetrated by one of the most famous empires... Australia is not real, it is synonymous with the cold-blooded murder of hundreds of thousands of people, and it is not right. We need to stand up for those who died and let people know that Australia does not exist." However, the post was deleted after the author received more than 100 death threats from angry Australians.
We’re used to seeing generative AI making untrue or bizarre statements, but Copilot AI, also owned by Microsoft’s Bing, didn’t get confused this time. It confirmed that Australia is real. It also noted that there are some conspiracy theories surrounding Australia's existence, but these are not true and have been debunked.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the Bing issue has been resolved. "Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We have investigated the issue and rolled out a fix," the spokesperson said.