AI overview misinfo about Melanie

Hello, it's been a while. I just had an experience with my sister, and I felt like sharing, in hopes I'll help people avoid the same situation my sister just got in.

For the record, my sister and I are both autistic, as well as Melanie Martinez fans. For me, Melanie was even my special interest for many years (and she still is, to an extent).

Today, my sister sent me this screenshot:

AI overview misinfo about Melanie-Hello, it's been a while. I just had an experience with my sister, and I felt like sharing,

Now, wouldn't that be awesome, right? But it says "AI overview" at the top, then shares information I've never actually seen or heard Melanie say anywhere herself.

I told my sister that I've never seen Melanie say that, and I don't trust the AI overviews. Although I wouldn't be surprised if she actually was autistic, I would just need to see a source where she's the one directly saying "I am autistic". Not some random google AI saying she's "spoken about her experiences".

Then, I saw the "according to the Academy of Special Dreams" at the bottom as the source, so I clicked the link and it took me to this article:

I also scrolled down to the bottom of the page, and found that the copyright year for this article was 2022.

So, this article is about a different person named Melanie Martinez, who is autistic, and was also 18 years old in 2022. It is not about the Melanie my sister assumed it was about, due to the AI overview.

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I'm making this post because I don't want other people to just assume whatever google tells them is true. Especially now with all the AI stuff, you have to make sure you check sources and know where the information you're reading is coming from.

It doesn't matter whether or not Melanie is autistic, but she hasn't publicly said anything about autism in general anywhere, yet google AI is just jumbling this random article about another girl together with actually true information about Melanie.

And the fact my sister was originally just looking for Melanie Martinez merchandise when she found this misinformation is proof that it's easy to stumble upon and get tricked by AI.

Please just make sure you know the sources of the information you're reading, and check the sources yourself to make sure the facts are actually true!!

That's all! Bye for now!