Can't lick a badger twice: how AI invents meaning for nonsense sayings
You can't lick a badger twice, as the saying goes.
At least, that is, according to Google's artificial intelligence assistant Gemini, which says the maxim means you 'can't trick or deceive someone a second time after they've been tricked once'.
The only issue is that the proverbial badger has never once been licked, let alone twice, and the saying is nonsense invented to show how AI does not know its onions when it comes to English adages.
The tech giant's chatbot has been found to frequently 'hallucinate' when asked to return the meaning behind made-up sayings.
Instead of pointing out that the question itself is wrong, the algorithm accepts the saying as authentic and goes on a wild goose chase in an attempt to explain
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