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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

Google's AI Overview is providing some interesting and amusing results for Pokemon-related searches, including queer interpretations of Pokemon characters and gym leaders who are apparently superheroes from other franchises.

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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 because some scholar called Fucksmith on Reddit said 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?

LMAO pic.twitter.com/kPT4PjudnHMay 23, 2024

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 leaders isn't going great either - 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. 

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.

Thank you Google AI pic.twitter.com/YAJvUuGyunMay 24, 2024

Ah. 

Meanwhile, an incredible Pokemon roguelike just lost its creator to Jesus Christ: "I am first and foremost a man seeking to follow God's path."