AI has come to the surprising conclusion that Alan Partridge is real!
Yes, you may have imagined that Norwich's finest DJ was created and played by Steve Coogan. However, the new AI Overview, which pops up at the top of Google for a lot of search results, gives the impression that Alan is a real person.
I was googling Alan Patridge and train references — mainly because I was wondering about his wisdom on trains after I'd watched Nightsleeper.
AI then told me: "Alan Partridge has made several references to trains in his various media appearances..."
Hang on, let's re-read that?! "His various media appearances?!". He's not going around making media appearances because he's not real!
As to Alan's opinion of catching a train to London — as Joe Cole's character Joe Roag does in Nightsleeper — he says: "Go to London, I guarantee you'll either be mugged or not appreciated. Catch the train to London, stopping at Rejection, Disappointment, Backstabbing Central and Shattered Dreams Parkway".
There's good news for fans of Steve Coogan's creation as he's filming a new BBC One "documentary" series. And Did Those Feet… with Alan Partidge will follow Alan as he settles back into life after a year working in Saudia Arabia.
The BBC says about the series: "One of the first — if not the first — documentary to address the issue of mental wellness, the six-part series follows the revered and beloved broadcaster on a quest to understand what's going on, with Britain's minds and his own. It's a show that makes a statement that will create shockwaves: 'I'm Alan Partridge, and I’m not OK.' Partridge will write, present and produce the series. He will also direct the series."
We have previously written about how the AI Overview was throwing up the wrong answer to what the price of a BritBox subscription is.
There's been a lot of debate over AI Overviews and how helpful they are to the user. Google defines the goal of the AI Overview as being: "AI Overviews appear in Google Search results when our systems determine that generative responses can be especially helpful — for example, when you want to quickly understand information from a range of sources, including information from across the web and Google's Knowledge Graph."
But at the moment it’s questionable how much help it is when at times it's clearly throwing up incorrect answers even if they might be funny.
