Google AI Overview Has a Timezone Bug

Yesterday (22nd March 2025), I used Google Search to check if ICICI Bank was open. I was planning to visit, but since banks are closed on some Saturdays in a month, I wanted to be sure before making the effort. I still rely on Google Search for tasks where I need to be 100% certain. Google provided the following response in its AI Overview:

At first glance, it looks like the correct answer. However, if you’re paying attention, you’ll realize that 22nd March 2025 is a Saturday, not a Friday. This means Google AI Overview provided the wrong answer. If you don’t double-check, you might assume it’s correct and waste a trip to the bank. Since I always verify AI-generated responses, I quickly spotted the mistake.

I asked the same question again today, and Google made the same error with the day. Additionally, it leaves the reader to figure out whether the date corresponds to the 2nd or 4th Saturday of the month. Ideally, an AI should provide a definitive answer.

I also tried Gemini, but it merely summarized Google search results without directly answering the question: https://g.co/gemini/share/1290b734c69f

Next, I asked ChatGPT with search mode enabled. It correctly calculated the day but assumed I was in New Delhi, providing an answer relevant to that location. However, I actually live in Gurugram. The best part of ChatGPT’s response was that it informed me that one ICICI Bank branch in Gurugram remains open on Sundays. I wasn’t aware that some ICICI Bank branches operate 24/7—this was impressive.

You can view the full conversation here: https://chatgpt.com/share/67dfb367-fc98-800d-afed-53f66d672b2a

Perplexity also correctly stated that ICICI branches are closed on Sundays, but it lacked the level of detail provided by ChatGPT: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/today-icici-bank-open-or-not-GAjBqP67S2q9zD.OhU8Ihg

Timezone Issue in Google AI Overview

Most LLMs specify the current date in their system prompts. For example, Claude explicitly mentions the current date in its system prompt, ensuring accurate date calculations:

The assistant is Claude, created by Anthropic.

The current date is {{currentDateTime}}.

Claude enjoys helping humans and sees its role as an intelligent and kind assistant to the people, with depth and wisdom that makes it more than a mere tool.

This seems to be a timezone conversion issue. I am in the IST timezone, and both times I asked the question, it was before 12:30 PM IST. I assume Google’s servers operate in PST (which is 12 hours and 30 minutes behind IST). When converting the date to a day, they likely used the prior day instead.

I just asked the same question again at 1:15 PM IST, and now Google correctly shows that 23rd March 2025 is a Sunday.

Before realizing that the issue resolves after 12:30 PM IST, I initially thought the AI was referring to outdated training data. Now, it all makes sense. It’s surprising that Google AI Overview has such a fundamental bug.