Google's AI is teaching Pokemon fans a thing or two about LGBT pocket pals - Bulbasaur is a "plant-loving queer," Mewtwo is an "older, cultured gay," and oh so much more
May. 25, 2024Is that canon?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Google’s recent AI Overview rollout is leading to some illuminating revelations for everyone’s favorite TV shows and games, like Pokemon.
If the goings-on of search isn’t your scene, Google recently rolled out a new feature that leans on AI to answer your search query. While it can regurgitate a lot of content from outlets seeking to answer those same questions, it hasn’t quite got the hang of scraping a Reddit post or satire article and separating fact from meme.
The result? Some oddball moments, like seemingly recommending using non-toxic glue to stop cheese flying off pizza becausesome scholar called Fucksmith on Redditsaid so.
It’s not just pizza fans who are getting goofy results, though, as Pokemon fans have been learning new things about their favorite series. One fan shares that Google’s AI Overview told them there are no LGBT characters in the Pokemon Horizons series, but the rest of the franchise?
Apparently, “some people” say that Bulbasaur is a “plant-loving queer who often says ‘Mother Earth,'” Butterfree is a “strong trans woman who helps the player’s team early in the game,” and Ditto is a “genderqueer, gender nonconforming sibling who has escaped the gender binary.”
“Some people” would be Out Magazine, which wrote an article called"21 Pokémon who are totally, absolutely, definitely queer"earlier this year. I ain’t here to disagree. We searched for something similar on Google and got different results that were pulled from the same article – shoutout to Mewtwo; “an older, cultured gay.”
That’s not the only Pokemon-related search term that Google’s AI Overview seems to be struggling with. Another fan shares that looking up gym leadersisn’t going greateither - that, or I wasn’t paying attention to Batman and Spider-Man’s runout in Generation 6. Our search for that one was cleaner, in fairness, though I don’t think Apex Legend’s Wattson is quite the right answer I was hoping for, either.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
While Google’s AI Overview spent some time in beta, its global rollout is still in its infancy, so you’d imagine these sorts of things will clear up in time. Until then, we’ve always got Mario Kart.
Ah.
Meanwhile,an incredible Pokemon roguelikejust lost its creator to Jesus Christ: “I am first and foremost a man seeking to follow God’s path.”
Iain joins the GamesRadar team as Deputy News Editor following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When not helping Ali run the news team, he can be found digging into communities for stories – the sillier the better. When he isn’t pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new hat, you’ll find him amassing an army of Pokemon plushies.
Pokemon and Wallace and Gromit animation studio Aardman are collaborating on a new “special project,” but it’s a full 3 years away
18 years after Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, everyone is still adding Lucario and Garchomp to their parties as Scarlet and Violet player stats reveal the most popular team members
Untitled Goose Game publisher is back and weirder than ever with a bizarre FMV game called Blippo+, and no one’s even quite sure what exactly it is: “video is no game™”
