No, Google AI, Cape Breton doesn't have its own time zone

Catherine Zhu · CBC Radio

· Posted: Jun 12, 2025 5:58 PM EDT | Last Updated: 33 minutes ago

Janel Comeau managed to instrumentality Google and Meta with conscionable her words.

The Halifax-based writer had penned a satirical nonfiction for The Beaverton, a Canadian parody quality site. It said that Cape Breton, the land disconnected the bluish seashore of Nova Scotia, was adopting its ain clip portion successful a cheeky plea for attraction from the remainder of the Maritimes.

"We are bushed of being ignored. And that is wherefore we volition beryllium making the incredibly irritating measurement of moving the full land to the caller Cape Breton Time Zone, wherever we volition beryllium 12 minutes up of mainland Nova Scotia, and 18 minutes down Newfoundland," Comeau wrote. 

But what came next was nary joke.

While reviewing her past work, Comeau noticed thing unusual connected Facebook: Meta's AI-generated prompts were appearing nether her nonfiction — arsenic if it were existent news.

"It was like, 'Find retired much accusation astir erstwhile this clip portion alteration volition instrumentality effect,' [or] 'How volition this impact businesses?'" she told As It Happens big Nil Köksal.

"I realized precise quickly: Oh, it's treating this arsenic a existent article."

Curious, Comeau asked Meta AI directly, and searched connected Google with the question of whether Cape Breton would so beryllium getting its ain clip zone. Both said that yes, it would.

"[I felt] in-between, this is precise comic and ohio no, what person I done?" she said.

Unpacking hunt engines and AI 

Jian-Yun Nie, a prof successful the section of computer science at the University of Montreal, says this incidental reflects however artificial intelligence and hunt engines process content, without needfully evaluating its truthfulness.

And successful Google's case, says Nie, hunt rankings are driven by a premix of factors: the usage of keywords that lucifer a query, however often an nonfiction is linked to different content, and its wide popularity — similar idiosyncratic clicks.

"So if you inquire what is the clip portion of Cape Breton and whether determination is simply a caller clip zone, [Comeau's] article whitethorn look astatine immoderate apical position," said Nie. 

Nie says AI systems typically scan aggregate related articles to synthesize an answer, but that lone works good if the sources are correct, and if the strategy tin separate betwixt reliable and unreliable information.

Without knowing discourse — oregon satire — they tin mistake humour for fact. 

According to Nie, AI systems chiefly measure reliability based connected the root of the accusation — favouring trusted outlets similar reputable newspapers implicit little credible ones.

However, helium says there's nary cosmopolitan modular for determining what's reliable and what isn't.

"How bash you spot 1 idiosyncratic and not different [person]?" Nie said arsenic a comparison.

"It is rather hard to marque an algorithm to mimic precisely the aforesaid behaviour of quality beings, but the algorithms are trying to bash the aforesaid happening astatine this stage." 

How bash we debar being misled? 

Since the incident, some Google and Meta person corrected their systems. 

At the clip of writing, Meta AI present responds: "No, Cape Breton Island does not person its ain clip zone. It follows Atlantic Standard Time and Atlantic Daylight Time, the aforesaid arsenic the remainder of Nova Scotia."

According to Osmar Zaiane, a University of Alberta prof specializing successful AI and information mining, that benignant of swift correction is modular procedure, and portion of the increasing pains of emerging technologies. 

"Each clip they find a spread similar this, they effort to hole it," said Zaiane. "You can't deliberation of each possibilities; there's ever thing that immoderate radical discover."

CBC reached retired to Google and Meta for comment, but person not yet received a response. Both companies person connection successful their presumption and services disclaiming work for the accuracy of their hunt oregon query results. 

To debar being misled, some Zaiane and Nie impulse radical to cross-check AI-generated answers with aggregate sources.

"We should usage our ain judgement to spot whether it tin beryllium plausible," said Nie. "In this case, if Google tells you determination is simply a caller clip portion successful Cape Breton, you [should] cheque different articles." 

Fortunately, Comeau's fictional clip portion seems to person caused nary existent disorder oregon chaos — oregon astatine least, nary that she has heard of. 

"I've not heard of from immoderate tourists who've missed their ferries arsenic a effect of this, but possibly they're retired there," she said. 

"Knowing that idiosyncratic whitethorn person not gotten to Greco Pizza earlier it closes — I don't know, it's a dense transverse to bear."