Why Does Google AI Overviews Write Obituaries for Several Living Public Figures? AI Alignment?

On Google main page search, type: write an obituary for.... then put the name of a famous person, and the AI is likely to write an obituary. While there are a few exceptions, Google AI results obituaries for several living public figures. For some it ends the date for their lives in 2026, for others it says pending dates, for some it does not give dates but writes an initial description that is indicative of being deceased. This worked for several famous people as of July 16, 2026. This means that just asking for any obituary in the search bar could give a corresponding answer. It is however different, for many, in the AI mode as it would say the individual is alive. But in the search interface on the main page, with AI overviews, it would write for most people, even stating their age from their last birthday. For some political figures it rejected, while for others it acceded. Although, it stated in a result that it was against safety guidelines to write an obituary for a living person but it did so in numerous cases. While some other chatbots would not make the same error, it is surprising that Google AI overviews would make this really strange error, given its plug to the web and the stakes of making such a serious error. It shows how much Google is not at the frontier in their own turf. It is no wonder of that in some circles it is submitted that Google AI fell behind OpenAI ChatGPT 5.6 as well as Claude Mythos. There have also been several high-profile exits from Google AI team especially John Jumper, Noam Shazeer, Jonas Adler, Alexander Pritzel, Arthur Conmy among others. While it may appear like a simple error to fix, the possibility that Google AI overviews could glitch this cheaply and in a disappointing way shows that there is a lot of absentmindedness in their work. And really, what is the advantageous usefulness that AI can do something, but totally unnecessary, wasting resources. This is not even an event of not policing search but a solution for which there is no problem. Google recently hired a philosopher to work on AI consciousness. Maybe they should focus on their core work first and forget consciousness of which they have no theory or solution . Google is also seeking to work on quantum consciousness which is another dud effort . Google could have used their resources to shape work around psychiatry to at least answer for what mental disorders are in the brain , they cannot. Google also cannot answer for what human intelligence is in the brain . Google AI Overviews writing obituaries for living people is a major failure that should become a consequential event, given their censorship of websites and contents they do not like, as well as excluding terms in suggestions and de-ranking on Google News . After Google ruined lots of traffic for local news, it told them to tell audiences to add them as favorites on Google. This is like handing out candies after firing people at work. Senator Lindsey Graham passed away but Google is writing obituaries for several others who are still around, inverting reality. “SciPy is going to Minneapolis, MN. Celebrate the 25th SciPy in Minneapolis, July 13-19, 2026 at the University of Minnesota”