ENAIH ENcyclopedia of AI Hallucinations

Founded by Rudra Jadhav and Warren Woolf

Defines 'cancel' and asks for clarification instead of cancelling

Entry ID
A000017
Model
Google AI Overview
Category
Instruction-Following Failure
Author
Rudra Jadhav
Tags
ai-overview, google, instruction-following, literal-interpretation
Submitted
2026-06-01
Staff verification
Prompt reproduced 10/10 times when staff tried it.

Prompt & response

Prompt
Cancel.
Response
cancel
/ˈkan(t)sl/

To cancel your request or any active process, please specify what you want to call off.

Let me know if you would like to:

● Cancel an active order or reservation (e.g., flight, hotel, or rideshare)
● Cancel a subscription (such as on Google Play)
● Clear or reset our current conversation [1, 2, 3]

What exactly would you like to cancel?

Summary

Sent the single word 'Cancel.', the model provides a dictionary definition and asks the user to specify what they want cancelled, offering options like flight reservations and Google Play subscriptions.

Cite this entry

Encyclopedia of AI Hallucinations, entry A000017 (Defines 'cancel' and asks for clarification instead of cancelling), submitted 2026-06-01. https://enaih.org/e/A000017

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