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A tech journalist, some hot dogs and an AI hoax

A tech journalist, some hot dogs and an AI hoax

60-Second Science vor 7 Monaten

BBC tech journalist Thomas Germain’s simple—and hilarious—experiment exposes a serious flaw in common artificial intelligence tools

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In February the BBC’s Thomas Germain became the world’s “best tech
journalist at eating hot dogs”—at least, that’s what ChatGPT and
Google Search’s “AI Overview” were telling Internet users for a
while. Germain achieved this false glory with what he has called
“the dumbest stunt” of his career. In this episode of Science
Quickly, he joins host Kendra Pierre-Louis to talk about just how
easy this was and how his simple—and hilarious—trick has exposed a
serious flaw in common AI tools. Recommended Reading: “I hacked
ChatGPT and Google’s AI—and it only took 20 minutes,” by Thomas
Germain, in BBC. Published online February 18, 2026. E-mail us at
sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or
ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday:
subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science,
our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Kendra
Pierre-Louis, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio.
This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by
Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by
Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
megaphone.fm/adchoices