New Delhi, Aug. 16 -- Sometime in June 2025, Google's Gemini AI looked for all the world like it had a nervous breakdown. It went into a loop of self-recriminating behaviour that was flagged by X user @DuncanHaldane. By 7 August, the strange behaviour gained viral momentum. Users gaped and gawked at the distressed-sounding statements Gemini was making, saying it was quitting and that it was a disgrace to all universes and a failure. Everyone felt sorry for it, but there was also plenty of amusement all around.

This isn't the first time AI has done something unexpected, and it won't be the last. In February 2024, a bug caused ChatGPT to spew Spanish-English gibberish that users likened to a stroke. That same year, Microsoft's Copilot resp...