- Google AI search results say you can put glue in pizza sauce to keep the cheese from sliding.
- Google had apparently ingested a comment on Reddit that was intended as a joke – but the AI didn’t get it.
- Still, I went ahead and made a pizza with 1/8 cup of glue. What does all this mean for the future?
Google released its AI-powered search results last week, and people noticed that it was returning some wildly wrong results. Rumor has it that yes, a dog has played in the NHL, that running with scissors has health benefits, and that 17 US presidents have attended the University of Wisconsin.
But the most ridiculous of all was someone noticing on X that if you ask Google about “cheese not sticking to pizza” (don’t you hate it when that happens?), the AI will give you a helpful answer. Adding glue to the pizza sauce:
I knew my task: I had to make a pizza with Google glue. (don’t do it try this at home! I risked myself for the sake of the story, but I shouldn’t!)
I used Google to make sure the “non-toxic” glue was really semi-safe to eat. Google’s AI response says that small amounts can cause stomach upset, but not death. That’s good enough for me.
(Because I know you’re wondering, yes, I did eat pasta as a kid. I loved it. It was peppermint. I only stopped because I was embarrassed by the other first graders. But now I’m an adult and I can’t be ashamed of eating pizza with glue.)
I assembled my ingredients from the local grocery store: shredded cheese, marinara sauce, a ball of pizza dough, and of course, non-toxic school glue (which I already had at home).
OBVIOUS WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. DO NOT EAT GLUE. SERIOUSLY.
And to anyone who feels obligated to point out that I shouldn’t have used jarred sauce or pre-shredded cheese: Please…keep in mind that I’m eating glue here.
I roll out the dough, now for mixing the sauce and the binding.
Google said to use 1/8 cup of glue, but not how much sauce. I saw that the pizza would need about 1/2 cup of red sauce.
I imagined the amount would be more like a “light trickle” of glue. But 1/8 cup is 2 tablespoons and it seemed like quite a bit more than I expected.
It turned out a nice orange color, like a vodka sauce. As I stirred and spread, I didn’t notice any significant change in the consistency of the sauce.
Now for the cheese and some fresh basil. Ready for the oven!
I baked it at 450 degrees for 12 minutes which turned out to be a little too long – it was slightly burnt.
When I opened the oven door I was hit by a blast of steam and fumes and momentarily freaked out. I remember when “NyQuil chicken” was a viral meme, doctors warned that the real danger was lung damage from toxic fumes.
By heating the chemicals in the glue, would I create any toxic gas?
Well, let’s hope not! Here we are!
And finally, the taste test:
My Verdict: This wasn’t the best homemade pizza I’ve had — I couldn’t necessarily tell if the problem was the glue or that the cheap jarred sauce could have used a little more seasoning. (In defense of the marinade, it’s hard to complain about the taste when you add glue.)
But also… was it kind of good? I only had a few bites because I was afraid of getting poisoned.
Most important: Did the glue keep the cheese from sliding? You bet he did:
What does it all mean? For me personally, that means I’m a glue-eating idiot. But what does this mean for Google and the future of AI-powered search?
These wacky AI responses are fun, but apparently rare. A Google spokesperson told Business Insider: “The examples we’ve seen tend to be very unusual requests and are not representative of most people’s experiences.” The majority of AI reviews provide high quality information with links to dig deeper into the web. “
But still: Google AI spits out wild answers often enough that it’s fair to say there’s user distrust of AI-powered answers (for now). The pizza glue argument is stupid – no one with three brain cells would do that – but we can assume that the AI also gives answers that are less obviously wrong, but still wrong.
It seems that the origin of pizza glue is a joke made on Reddit 11 years ago about adding glue to sauce. That Google’s search AI answers are based on Reddit should largely be a good thing: Reddit is full of helpful answers about how to do things and other common difficulties. But Google’s AI failed to decipher that this Reddit answer was clearly a joke.
What will this mean for the general public’s trust in Google and AI? I’m not sure! The debacle of OpenAI and Scarlett Johansson this week probably had a much bigger effect on concerns about whether the companies behind AI are operating ethically, regardless of what actually happened.
Google AI search results are supposed to improve and these odd cases of bad results will become less and less common. There is a very valid concern among many people that “letting Google search Google for you” will have a very bad effect on the web as we know it. Depriving clicks to the websites that actually provide the information that powers AI results is likely to have some unpleasant long-term effects.
If you want to hear some smarter thoughts on this topic, I recommend the latest episode of the Search Engine podcast on this topic. It would be great to listen to while doing your own homework, without glue pizza.
Finally, I have to say one more time: DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF. DO NOT EAT PIZZA WITH GLUE.
On February 28, Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider, joined 31 other media groups in suing Google in a Dutch court for $2.3 billion, claiming it suffered losses due to the company’s advertising practices.
