(dr) molly tov
bombs in bottles
today in AI fuckery: lying about my bank
I was renewing my vehicle registration online today (as you do), and I did not want to pay the extra "service fee" for paying with a credit card (as you don't). So I opted for the "electronic check" option, which requires me to enter my account and routing numbers.
I have my account number memorized, but I always have to look up the bank's routing number. I know it when I see it, but I don't have every digit memorized.
So did what I always do: I searched "[bank name] routing number." I've done this for years, in multiple search engines. In every previous year, a search engine would either give me the correct response in the blurb under the first link, or (if it was mid-late-stage Google) in its "featured snippet."
This year, I got an AI-generated result that gave me a COMPLETELY MADE UP ROUTING NUMBER. It didn't even have the correct number of digits. (The first link took me to my bank's routing number info page, which did contain the correct number, as one would expect.)
Oh good. This feels like something that could not possibly backfire. *insert eyeroll emoji here*
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