Why Google’s AI can’t spell Google (or anything else)
Google's AI has been struggling with basic spelling tasks, leading to humorous errors in its search results. Despite its advanced capabilities, the AI's approach to language processing has resulted in frequent mistakes, such as misspelling common words. Researchers note that the underlying architecture of large language models limits their ability to understand spelling like humans do.
- ▪Google's AI incorrectly identified the number of letters in various words, including misspelling 'journalism' as 'j-o-u-r-n-a-d-i-s-m'.
- ▪The AI's spelling errors highlight a known challenge in large language models, which do not process text as humans do.
- ▪Researchers believe that the token-based architecture of LLMs makes it difficult to accurately define what constitutes a 'word'.
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| Original publisher | TechCrunch |
| Canonical URL | https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/why-googles-ai-cant-spell-google-or-anything-else/ |
| Publication time | Thu, 28 May 2026 00:17:41 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-28T00:22:00.995Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-28T00:53:03.956Z |
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How many Ps are in Google? According to Google, there are two. There’s also is also “exactly 1 ‘r’ in the word ‘poop’,” Google’s AI Overview says, as well as two ‘d’s in the word journalism, yet spelled it: j-o-u-r-n-a-d-i-s-m. Google did at least identify that there is one P in the last name of the U.S. president, but spelled it as t-r-p-u-m. You didn’t need to be a prophet to predict that Google’s AI-forward Search overhaul was going to go over poorly. We’ve done this before. The first time Google added AI Overviews to Search, the feature ended up citing satirical posts from The Onion and Reddit, advising people to eat rocks and put glue on their pizza.
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