Google AI Overview wrongly states 2026 is next year, Elon Musk reponds

Elon Musk has reacted after Google’s AI Overview once again delivered an incorrect response, this time confusing a basic question about the calendar year.

A user on X, formerly Twitter, shared a screenshot of a Google Search query asking whether 2027 was next year. In response, Google’s AI Overview stated that 2027 was not next year and that 2026 was next year, implying the current year was 2025.

Responding to the post, Musk commented that there was room for improvement.

Room for improvement https://t.co/a94mHvPBQf

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 6, 2026

Notably, Musk did not direct users towards his own AI chatbot, Grok, despite frequently highlighting its features. This may be because Grok itself has faced controversy in the past. The chatbot had earlier described Musk and his former political ally Donald Trump as the biggest threat to America and more recently attracted criticism for generating sexually explicit deepfakes involving women and children.

This is not the first time Google’s AI Overview has been criticised for providing inaccurate information. Shortly after its launch, the feature sparked backlash after suggesting users add glue to pizza or eat rocks as a source of vitamins. While Google appeared to improve accuracy as it advanced its Gemini models, AI Overview again drew scrutiny after incorrectly stating that the game Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was fake.

In the latest instance, Google appears to have disabled AI Overview for the direct query asking whether 2027 is next year. However, adding the term AI Overview to the same question still triggers an AI-generated response stating that 2026 is next year and that the current year is 2025.

By contrast, asking similar questions through Google’s AI Mode, which is powered by Gemini 3, does not produce the same incorrect answers, highlighting inconsistencies across the company’s AI-powered search features.