Google’s controversial new AI Mode has falsely named an innocent Sydney Morning Herald graphic designer as the man who confessed to abducting and murdering three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer more than 50 years ago, in an egregious error that underscores the unreliability and danger of artificial intelligence as the technology reshapes how the internet works.

The designer had been working on a Herald story about a NSW MP’s use of parliamentary privilege to identify a man – dubbed “Mercury” – who confessed to the girl’s kidnapping and murder in 1971. Mercury cannot be named outside parliament due to NSW laws banning the identification of accused who were juveniles at the time of the crime.

After the story was posted online on Thursday, a member of the public used Google’s AI Mode – a new

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