BILLINGS — Internet users around the city of Billings are beginning to notice a strange feature on Google's AI Overview search. When you search up "non-emergency number, Billings, MT" on Google, the AI Overview may bring up incorrect numbers, rather than the actual non-emergency number for the Billings Police Department.
Learn more about why Google's AI Overview search may be spewing out false information below:
When a reporter from MTN searched "non-emergency number" on Google, the AI Overview search feature displayed several phone numbers, none of which were correct. On the first attempt, the AI search highlighted a number that was out of service when called. MTN then made a slightly different search, "non-emergency number, Billings, MT", and the AI Overview search highlighted a phone number that led to a local orthodontist's office.
On Wednesday, the Billings Police Department made a Facebook post explaining the situation, warning citizens not to use AI to find the non-emergency number.
"Our volunteer coordinator had brought it to my attention that some of our volunteers had gotten phone calls from people trying to make reports to dispatch," said Lt. Samantha Puckett, the administrative lieutenant with the Billings Police Department.
MTN asked Puckett if she had tried the search feature for herself.
"I just called one of them and ended up being the MSU-B campus store, and they said they had been getting a few phone calls over the last couple weeks," she said.
Interestingly, Puckett said that the Billings Police Department had previous problems with Google's AI search feature.
"Obviously we had one when we moved our police department over here to North 26th. We had to report that, because when you looked at our address, it was still providing the 27th address," she said.
To further understand why Google's AI Overview search was providing false information, MTN reached out to the Scripps AI Newsroom Director Keith St. Peter about the situation.
St. Peter communicated directly with Google AI Mode, which is a type of Large Language Model, or LLM. According to Google AI Mode, when a LLM is trained on text data, it can struggle with recalling precise and correct information, especially large numbers, such as phone numbers. Google AI Mode recommended that any incorrect information be reported directly to Google.
According to Puckett, the Billings Police Department reported the information to Google, and the problem should be fixed within the next few weeks.
"Double check if you do use Google, or anything like that. Don't rely on that AI portion. If you scroll down a little bit, it will give you the correct number for non-emergency," Puckett said.
The correct number for the Billings Police Department non-emergency line is 406-657-8200. To further access additional resources, such as the Billings Crime Prevention Center, visit this link.
