In addition to providing opportunities for efficiency for students and employees, the rise of AI has also provided entertainment for its early adopters. Liz Reid, head of Google Search, attributed inaccurate (and often, funny) answers to questions to “data voids” and satirical websites. Seeing that the Internet has an incredible amount of bad data and misinformation, how will generative AI prevent its tendency to hallucinate or simply make up answers?
In an article for Quartz, Columbia Business School Professor Olivier Toubia discussed how the downfalls of AI, as well as not being at the forefront of creating a reliable tool, can actually benefit Google. Even admitting to and rectifying mistakes that AI is known for, such as hallucinations, can help them to “build the perception that they are the responsible tech firm,” Toubia said.
With AI search not going anywhere, learn how Google and other companies can embrace the disadvantages of artificial intelligence.
Mentioned Faculty

Olivier Toubia
- Glaubinger Professor of Business
- Marketing Division
Olivier Toubia is the Glaubinger Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. His research focuses primarily on innovation, customer insights, and creative industries. Specifically, he combines methods from social sciences and data science in order to study human processes such as motivation, choice, and creativity. He previously served as the Editor-in-Chief at the journal Marketing Science. He teaches Foundations of Innovation, Generative AI for Business and the core marketing course. He received his MS in Operations Research and PhD in Marketing from MIT.