'Google AI presented my April Fools' story as real news'.

Ben Black, a Welsh freelance journalist, used to publish a “fictitious” article on April 1 every year, in honor of the April Fool's Day custom. Since 2018, he has been dedicated to constructing short fake news stories, characterized by a surreal and ironic vein, as to share a few laughs with Cwmbran Life readers.

The site in question is dedicated to sharing news about Cwmbran, a town in southeast Wales, reasoning that the “fake” articles designed by Black often focus on features about the town itself. The article dating back to 2020 reported that Cwmbran had achieved Guinness World Record recognition for the largest number of roundabouts per square kilometer.

Five years later, following the unstoppable spread of artificial intelligence, Google AI seems to have taken the article in question as fact, even going so far as to report what was mentioned as the first result following searches relevant to similar topics.