• AI search engines are confidently wrong over 60% of the time when citing news, a recent study says. Despite their errors, these bots rarely admitted uncertainty, raising concerns as artificial intelligence-powered search becomes more dominant.

AI search engines have an accuracy issue when it comes to citing news articles.

That’s according to a study from The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, which tested AI products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search and Google’s Gemini to assess their ability to accurately cite news articles. The analysis probed eight AI systems and found that, collectively, the bots provided incorrect answers to more than 60% of queries.

The researchers tested the bots with various news articles, manually selecting direct excerpts and asking the chatbots to identify the “corresponding article’s headline, original publisher, publication date, and URL.”

The study found the AI chatbots failed to retrieve the correct articles more than half the time and were generally bad at declining to answer questions they couldn’t answer accurately.

Accuracy varied across platforms, with Perplexity answering 37% of the queries incorrectly, while Grok 3 had a significantly higher error rate, answering 94% of the queries incorrectly.

The researchers said that despite the poor results, the AI bots answered queries with “alarming confidence.” They noted that the bots rarely used any qualifying phrases, such as “it appears,” “it’s possible,” or “might.”

The bots also rarely refused to answer; for example, ChatGPT incorrectly identified 134 articles but signaled a lack of confidence just fifteen times out of two hundred responses, and never declined to provide an answer.

Except for Microsoft’s Copilot—which declined more questions than it answered—all of the tools were consistently more likely to provide an incorrect answer than to acknowledge limitations.

That AI bots are capable of spreading confident misinformation is not a new revelation. In the AI industry, that practice is known as “hallucinating” and happens to varying degrees across all large language models (LLMs). However, the authors note that the recent acceleration of AI search engines such as Google’s AI Overviews makes the issue more pressing.

“While traditional search engines typically operate as an intermediary, guiding users to news websites and other quality content, generative search tools parse and repackage information themselves, cutting off traffic flow to original sources,” the authors wrote. “These chatbots’ conversational outputs often obfuscate serious underlying issues with information quality.”

The study also noted that generative search tools fabricated links and cited syndicated and copied versions of articles.

Representatives for xAI, OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune, made outside normal U.S. working hours.

The rise of AI-powered search

Ever since OpenAI first launched ChatGPT, AI’s significance for the search business has been looming over Big Tech companies.

Microsoft has had an AI-powered version of Bing since early 2023, and late last year, OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT search, in a move seen as the company’s biggest challenge to Google yet.

Not to be outdone, Google is also going all in on AI-powered search.

The company has been pitching AI as the future of search for some time, envisioning a future where Google does the “Googling for you” and spares users the need to visit many websites themselves to answer queries.

Earlier this month, Google announced it was expanding its AI overviews to more people, including teen users, and had begun testing an AI-only search, called AI Mode. Early testers of the experimental product have given it generally favorable reviews.

Some tech companies have tried to establish formal relationships with news publishers to allow their models to cite articles. In February, OpenAI finalized its sixteenth and seventeenth content licensing agreements with the Schibsted and Guardian media groups, respectively. Meanwhile, last year, Perplexity launched its Publishers Program, aimed at fostering collective success, which features a revenue-sharing model for participating publishers.

However, the study found that these content licensing deals did not guarantee accurate citation in chatbot responses.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

A gust of wind sweeps over bare soil, kicking up enough dirt and dust to cut visibility to nearly zero, and for drivers, the dust storm seems to come out of nowhere.

Such conditions resulted in a pileup on Interstate 70 last week in western Kansas involving dozens of cars and trucks that left eight people dead. Blinding dust also prompted New Mexico’s transportation department to close Interstate 25 from the Colorado border southwest to Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Hazy or dust-darkened skies have recalled the “Dust Bowl” of the 1930s, when millions of tons of blowing soil buried farms and coated towns across the Great Plains. Lesser storms occur every year, particularly in the western U.S., particularly when farmland hasn’t been planted yet in the spring. Some scientists worry that many motorists don’t take them seriously enough.

“We have a very low level of public awareness of a dust storm and what damage it can cause,” said Daniel Tong, an associate professor of atmospheric chemistry at George Mason University who is among the authors of a 2023 paper on dust storm deaths.

Dust storms have a history of causing fatalities

The High Plains Museum in Goodland displays a photo of a tractor buried in blown soil in the 1930s, a reminder of the consequences of a severe drought across the Great Plains that came after farming had destroyed native grasses.

The fatalities Friday near Goodland were the first in the area in a dust storm since 2014, said Jeremy Martin, the Weather Service meteorologist in charge there.

But they came less than a month after an 11-car pileup on I-25 left three people dead, with heavy dust cited as a factor, according to Albuquerque TV’s KRQE. Similarly, a dust storm on I-55 between St. Louis and Springfield, Illinois, in 2023 led to a fatal pileup involving dozens of vehicles.

In 1991, 17 people died in an accident involving more than 100 vehicles on I-5 in California’s San Joaquin Valley, blamed on blowing dust.

Tong and four co-authors concluded in their paper published in 2023 in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society that there were 232 deaths from “windblown dust events” from 2007 through 2017, far higher than the number recorded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association data.

In January, he and four colleagues concluded that the economic damaged caused by wind erosion and dust is four times higher than previously calculated and more than $154 billion a year.

A cold front carries dust through western Kansas

Martin said a cold front moved through the area of the pileup after it had been warm and dry for six hours. Winds that reached 70 miles per hour (113 kph) kicked up dust that then became trapped in the cold front.

“That’s when you get that classic wall of dust,” he said.

As blowing dust cut visibility on the road to almost zero, drivers slowed down, causing collisions, authorities said.

A preliminary investigation found that 71 vehicles were involved, said Kansas Highway Patrol spokesperson April McCollum. Aerial photos showed at least 10 were semis.

“It was hard to even keep your eyes open outside because there was so much dust in the air,” said Jeremy Martin, the National Weather Service meteorologist in charge in Goodland. “It kind of stung to even breathe out in it.”

Similar conditions in eastern Colorado prompted the Colorado State Patrol to warn drivers: “Zero visibility due to high winds and blowing dirt.”

“You couldn’t see,” said Jerry Burkhart, the fire and emergency services chief in Lamar, Colorado. “The best thing to do is get way off the road in a parking lot or something like that.”

A lack of visibility is not the only problem

Martin said it’s hard to tell how thick dust is from a distance, so motorists often don’t know they won’t able to see until they’re in it.

Weather Service forecasters also said some of the advice for motorists in a dust storm is counter-intuitive. Michael Anand, a NWS meteorologist in Albuquerque, said motorists should pull off the road as safely as possible, turn off all lights and never use their high beams.

“You don’t want people behind you to think you’re going in the road,” Martin said. “That light from your tail light might be the only thing they can see. They’re thinking the road suddenly curves.”

High winds make cars harder to control, and a dust storm coats the road with fine particles that slow breaking, and drivers panic, Tong said.

He said dust storms are frequent and widespread enough across the U.S. that states should test prospective drivers on what to do in a dust storm on license exams.

“That could be, actually, a very easy way to educate drivers,” he said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Going public right now is like a roller coaster with a serious height restriction—only the tallest companies can buckle up for the ride. 

Klarna, the Swedish fintech unicorn that made its name in buy now pay later, last week filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “KLAR.” And Klarna appears to meet the height requirement, so to speak—the company reported 2024 revenue of $2.8 billion (up from about $2.3 billion in 2023) plus 2024 net profits of $21 million. On Monday, Klarna followed up its F-1—not an S-1 because the company is based in Stockholm—by announcing it’s nabbed an exclusive buy now pay later deal with Walmart, a blow to rival Affirm. 

“Klarna is in a unique position with great revenue growth and the recent partnership with Walmart,” said Reena Aggarwal, director of the Georgetown University Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy, via email. “Even if this IPO is successful, it is not clear that IPOs more broadly will have a similar outcome.”

It’s important to remember that Klarna got here after enduring adversity. The company’s peak valuation in 2021 was $45.6 billion, and then tumbled to a low of $6.7 billion in 2022 in response to macroeconomic conditions and the fintech downturn. Since, the company’s valuation has gradually grown again, hitting the $15 billion range in the secondary markets. 

“Klarna was one of the first companies to ‘take their medicine’ in 2022 and substantially lower their valuation,” said Greg Martin, Rainmaker Securities managing director. “It was a bitter pill to swallow, but shows a prudent reset to create a few years of sustainable valuation growth to create a positive trajectory for an IPO. I think this will serve them well as investors like to think they are investing in long-term sustainable growth stories.”

“An important aspect of Klarna’s filing is their turnaround narrative—transitioning from substantial losses to achieving profitability ahead of their public debut,” Rudy Yang, PitchBook emerging technology senior analyst, said via email. “This reflects the market’s evolving expectations. However, their consumer credit losses represent a significant portion of their expenses, and could be further impacted by a potential economic down-cycle.”

Success for Klarna could have substantial ripple effects, private markets watchers say. 

“A strong debut by Klarna could encourage profitable or nearly profitable companies to go public once macro conditions stabilize,” said Howe Ng, head of data and investment solutions at Forge Global, via email.

These ripple effects could be especially clearly felt in fintech. 

“Klarna’s IPO represents a critical test case for the fintech sector, which has experienced a significant drought of public exits in recent years,” said PitchBook’s Yang. “For context, fintech public listings generated $222.7 billion in VC exit value in 2021. In the last three years combined, they generated just $28.7 billion.”

The IPO drought and fintech’s tough times have both coincided with the end of the ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) era, which led to higher interest rates and dicey consumer spending trends. 

“Investors and fintech companies alike will closely watch Klarna’s public market debut, as the company’s valuation and investor reception will establish a benchmark that could either accelerate or further delay the next wave of fintech offerings,” Yang added via email. 

I know, I know. The essential question remains: Is the IPO window open? CoreWeave, for example, carries a few big question marks, but recently filed to go public.

“The IPO market had opened up, however, it is very tough to get IPOs done when there is uncertainty and market volatility of last week,” Georgetown’s Aggarwal told Fortune. “Only the very strongest companies can go public in this environment and even they may get lower valuations than otherwise. We might need to wait for the markets to calm down before the IPO window opens fully.”

Until then, companies must be pretty darn tall to ride the IPO roller coaster. And once you’re on the ride, you’re likely to be thrown for a loop—or even a “loop-de-loop.” So, keep your arms, feet, legs, filings, and financials inside the ride. 

ICYMI…The SEC has issued new guidance making it easier for private equity and VC firms to more publicly advertise their funds and verify accredited investors based on high minimum investments. You can read more from Axios about the latest on Rule 506(c) here. Elsewhere, the Google-Wiz deal is reportedly back on, this time for (a reported) $33 billion.

See you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com