What happened

A Full Fact investigation found that Google’s AI Overviews within its visual search tool, Google Lens, repeated false social media claims that a viral video showed asylum seekers landing at Dover. 

The footage was in fact recorded on a beach in Goa, India.

The AI system’s summaries reinforced the misinformation by mislabeling the location as “Dover Beach” in England - an error that amplified a misleading rumour circulating on social media and  helped fuel anti-migrant sentiment by falsely portraying mass arrivals of asylum seekers on the UK’s coast. 

Why it happened

The failure stemmed from how AI Overviews synthesises web content without effectively verifying the authenticity or geographic context of images. According to Google, the inaccuracies arose from visual search results that drew on miscaptioned posts. 

The company stated it is working to improve quality controls but admitted limitations in identifying inauthentic or misleading source material, illustrating weaknesses in transparency and accountability for automated summarisation tools.