Google has said sorry for a tech mistake that left out former President Joe Biden’s name from search results showing US presidents. This caused some people to worry and complain about how accurate Google’s search system really is.
On Wednesday, users found the strange bug while looking up terms like “US Presidents,” “United States Presidents,” and “US Presidents in order.”
The search engine showed a list of presidents but didn’t include Biden, who just finished his four-year term on Monday. The list went from George Washington to Donald Trump, but it showed Trump as serving two back-to-back terms as president of the United States.
After seeing this, many people posted screenshots of the error on social media.
CNBC also saw the same mistake when searching for US presidents Wednesday night. The issue was sorted out by Thursday, and Biden’s name was added back into the search results.
A Google spokesperson told CNBC that, “There was a short data error in our knowledge graph. We found the cause and fixed it fast.”
The knowledge graph helps organise and store related facts and details.
This error came soon after Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai sent a message to staff about the upcoming US elections in November. He reminded workers that people count on Google to give them correct and fair information. “We must stay a trusted source for people of all views and backgrounds,” he wrote.
In a meeting in December, Pichai talked about how Google’s size and fame have made it more noticeable. “It comes with our size and success,” he said about the tech industry’s impact on the world.
The Biden error isn’t the only issue Google has had in 2024. The company recently launched Imagen 2, an AI image-making tool. But users complained about it showing wrong facts in pictures, so Google paused the tool to check it again. Pichai said they had “offended our users and shown bias.”
Google also had trouble with its AI Overview, a tool that gives a summary at the top of search results. Users found problems with it soon after it came out.
Pichai, who often talks about how tech affects society, has also been connected to former President Donald Trump. Even though Trump claims Google changed search results to hide him, Google says these claims are false.
Google gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and Pichai was seen on stage at the event with other tech leaders.