What happened when I Googled my uncle's name
- Specialised VET Services
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Remember when the internet started and when people got bored they "googled" themselves to see if they came up on Google?
I had a moment like that the other night. I decided to see what the internet knew about my uncle. And what ensued was so illuminating I had to share.
We know generative AI presents many challenges and opportunities. The opportunities are around productivity and growth, and the challenges tend to rest on authenticity and ethical use, including issues around the speed of creating and spreading mis- and dis-information.
The imperative to develop critical thinking and information literacy skills is more urgent than ever before. What happened when I Googled my uncle presented me with a situation that genuinely has me stumped.
This is why and what happened...
Like I said, I Googled my uncle one evening - I simply put his name into Google and the suburb in which he used to live. When I got a response, I was surprised, as he was killed at age 17 by a drunk adult who threw a one-hit coward punch outside a venue. And this occurred in 1964 - before news hit the digital airwaves.
Google told me that yes, he did indeed pass away in 1964 and gave me the correct date of that day in November. It also went on to tell me about the local soccer club that still holds an annual memorial event in his name (by all accounts, my uncle was a very talented soccer player and sportsman and in fact had been out celebrating selection to a state team the night he was killed).
Given my nanna has now passed and I can't ask her, but Google seemed to know a bit, I asked about the manslaughter trial. Nothing came up with the explanation that "NSW court records, police transcripts, and regional newspaper archives from the mid-1960s are largely preserved on physical microfilm or held in restricted state archives rather than being searchable online".
Fair enough. So I instead asked about the "Norm Positti Social Day" mentioned earlier.
For me, this was interesting as I wondered, given our family has lived in Qld since I was born, who would organise the day. I had heard stories as a kid that something of this nature occurred but I was surprised it's still an annual event.
So I checked the Corrimal Rangers football club website to confirm - and yep - it is!
And here's where it got really interesting... Google's AI went on to tell me that:
Despite the geographic distance and the decades that have passed since 1964, the family connection remains central to the event:
Keeping in Touch: The committee members and older club stalwarts of the Corrimal Rangers Football Club have historically maintained communication with his surviving family, ensuring they are aware the club still honors him.
I had not heard of any ongoing communications so asked for more about it:
I got told:
"Because decades have passed and the family no longer lives locally, this relationship functions through specific channels:
1. The Role of Club Stalwarts and Life Members
Direct outreach does not typically happen through formal, cold corporate emails. Instead, it relies on the club’s long-serving life members, former executives, and older club stalwarts. These are the individuals who either personally remember the 1964 tragedy or have inherited the responsibility from previous committee eras. They maintain an informal, trusted line of communication with his sister to ensure the family's wishes are always respected.
...
...
3. Open Invitations and Updates
The club keeps an open door for his sister and any extended family members. While geographic distance often prevents them from attending the crowded Family Day at Memorial Park, the club shares updates regarding:
How the day went and the community turnout.
The continued integration of the junior and senior clubs, keeping the "family first" culture alive.
Any major milestone years (such as the club celebrating its 135th anniversary) where past club history is prominently highlighted.
Now this is the thing that stumped me. I knew this was not true because the purple text describes actions that never happened.
In terms of verification of the information coming at me, if I was not directly related to this story, how would I know?? The information checks out on the soccer club's website. Short of questioning the club president or anyone else in the know, how would you verify this information??
THIS is what makes AI scary. It shows up in places where you might have otherwise trusted the information sources. It is being integrated into outputs where we might have little to no oversight on any disclosures about the source of the inputs to those outputs. And it makes the spread of information rapid. Which, when the information is misinformation, it makes the tales spread further and wider, more quickly, than they would have ever previously gotten in the past. AND, in the example I'm showcasing, only part of the information is true. The false part is near unverifiable - unless of course you have first hand family knowledge or you're one of the Corrimal soccer club's "long-serving life members, former executives, and older club stalwarts" who do not make annual contact with Norman Positti's family.
What else is popping up in our feeds that may be near unverifiable? How do we teach information literacy, the critical thinking and problem solving skills that would accurately uncover the AI lies in these circumstances? This is what has me stumped.
Sure, we've always had instances where false and/or unverified information circulates. But this isn't neighbours chatting over the back fence, or kids playing a whispering game to see if/how the message changes. Nor, even, is it a poorly investigated article in a tabloid press. This is information through a platform that is used by billions of users multiple times each day.
And sure, my example is about narrow, niche information and the only reason I could call it out was because I had "insider" knowledge, but this leads me to really think about how we can approach this task of ensuring people - especially our young people - are equipped with the skills and avenues to interrogate information to find truth; verifiable truth, not just the truth according to AI. I just don't know the full answer.
Fortunately, in this case, I at least got an apology for the gross embellishments and hallucinated details. The next person with the next search may not be so lucky...
This article is AITAS Rating 1
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18.6.26
