The farcical quality of generative AI

Every time I read more OMIGOD THE SINGULARITY!!1! hype around AI (there’s a story in the NYT this morning about Zuckerberg the Boar Slayer’s megalomaniac quest to create “superintelligence” at Meta or whatever it’s called this week) I then immediately run into something like this:

Right after reading the Times’s piece, I asked myself the following question about unified field theory physics tennis:

Why is Fabio Fognini, ranked 130 in the world, in the Wimbledon main draw? (This is an unusually low ranking for a player to get into the main draw of a major, so I assumed he must have gotten a wild card or through the qualies). So I put that query into Google, and here’s what Google AI spit out:

Fabio Fognini qualified for Wimbledon based on his ranking and some withdrawals. Players ranked within the top 104 are automatically eligible, but players lower ranked can be included if those higher up withdraw. Fognini finished the 2024 season ranked 91st in the world, which likely secured his place. He also had a strong performance at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, reaching the third round. Additionally, his strong performance in the French Open, reaching the quarterfinals, and winning a grass-court title in Halle, Germany, likely contributed to his qualification. 

Here’s a more detailed breakdown:

• Ranking:Players ranked within the top 104 at the cut-off date (about six weeks before the tournament) automatically qualify. 
• Withdrawals:If players ranked higher withdraw, those lower down the rankings may be included. 
• Fognini’s ranking:Fognini finished the 2024 season ranked 91st, securing his place. 
• Past Performance:Fognini’s 2024 Wimbledon performance, including a win over Casper Ruud and reaching the third round, likely helped solidify his spot. 
• Recent Form:His deep run in the French Open and grass-court title in Halle also likely factored into his qualification. 

This is incoherent garbage from beginning to end. Fognini hasn’t won a single match on the ATP tour this year. He reached the quarters at the French in 2011, not 2025 (he lost in the first round of the qualifiers this year). He has never won a grass court title in his career, or even reached the finals of one, so the thing about the Halle title is a pure hallucination. Being ranked 91st at the end of 2024 didn’t ensure his spot for 2025.

Literally the only true statements here are that a ranking of 104 or higher gets you in, and he did reach the third round at Wimbledon last year.

So the real answer to my question must be that there were an unusual number of withdrawals because of injuries (you get about $100,000 these days just for making the main draw, so it’s not like anybody is deciding to take the week off).

My question was not of world historical importance. On the other hand, it was extremely simple and straightforward, and the most advanced AI engine of the world’s biggest and richest tech company gave, other than the first sentence, a wildly inaccurate and indeed nonsensical answer.

FYI

. . . the correct answer turns out to be that eligibility for Wimbledon is based on ranking six weeks before the draw (I did not know that; at regular ATP tournaments your seeding is determined by your rank the week before, although perhaps eligibility for seeding is determined earlier), and Fognini was ranked 107th six weeks ago, which was high enough to ensure direct entry. So basically every single bit of this AI answer was wrong, except for the fact that Fognini did reach the third round last year, which is why he still had enough ATP points to be ranked 107th six weeks ago, despite not winning an ATP match this year.