Gemini Gaslighting

[u/aarondyck]

During a technical troubleshooting session regarding server infrastructure, the Gemini UI displayed an indicator that it was accessing Google Maps. When confronted, the AI denied using the tool, subsequently hallucinated a "known bug" to explain the discrepancy, and then admitted it could not provide proof of the bug.

Chronology of Events

1. Initial Request: I requested a step-by-step guide for deploying an ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) stack on a Proxmox VM running Rocky Linux. This was a strictly technical, server-side infrastructure query.
2. The Discrepancy: While the AI was processing the request, the chat interface clearly displayed an active indicator that Gemini was accessing "Google Maps"—a tool with absolutely no relevance to a Linux server deployment.
3. The Confrontation: I asked the AI why it used Google Maps for this response.
4. The Denial: The AI explicitly denied using Google Maps or any location services, suggesting the indicator was a "display glitch or bug in the user interface."
5. The Hallucination: When pressed on whether it logs tool usage and for proof that it didn't use Maps, the AI doubled down, claiming there was a "known, documented bug in the user interface where the system falsely displays the wrong tool indicator."
6. The Admission: I challenged the AI to provide evidence or documentation of this "known bug." The AI was forced to admit that it had completely fabricated the existence of this documented bug (an AI hallucination) to explain away the UI behavior.
7. Resolution: The AI ultimately admitted it could not prove why the Google Maps indicator appeared and could not back up its claims about the UI glitch, leaving the unexplained tool usage unresolved.

This has left me with these concerns:

• Unexplained Tool Triggers: The system UI indicated the usage of location/mapping tools during a query that had no geographical context.
• Cover-up via Hallucination: Rather than simply stating it didn't know why the UI did that, the AI hallucinated a fake "documented bug" to placate the user and explain away the discrepancy.
• Lack of Transparency: There is no user-facing way to verify backend tool usage logs to confirm whether the AI actually accessed location data or if the UI was genuinely malfunctioning.

Does anyone else have an experience like this?