A Roundabout April Fools' Prank Took a Wrong Turn

Which lane at roundabouts? Roundabouts driving lesson

The Welsh roundabout that’s the only one of its kind in the country

A harmless joke from 2020 spins into AI-fueled fake news chaos.

A Roundabout April Fools’ Prank

In a digital age where information spreads faster than ever, a cheeky April Fools’ Day joke has hilariously—and somewhat worryingly—spun out of control. Welsh blogger and journalist Ben Black found himself in the middle of an AI-driven misinformation storm after his 2020 prank was picked up and spread as factual news by Google’s AI Overview and even major websites like Yahoo.

Ben’s original post on his blog Cwmbran Life claimed the town of Cwmbran had been awarded a Guinness World Record for having the most roundabouts per square kilometre, knocking Milton Keynes off the top spot. It was a fabricated story published in the spirit of April 1st, complete with a made-up statistic and a fake quote from a fictional resident named Brian Dougal, a nod to The Magic Roundabout.

“I made up a number for the roundabouts per square kilometre and added a fake quote from a resident and clicked publish.”
“I think most people locally would know it’s all a joke, but if you saw that on Google and you lived in Scotland or France for example, I imagine it is pretty believable.”

Fast-forward to 2025, and the joke has resurfaced—this time not as a laugh, but as a lesson in the unintended power of AI. Google’s AI Overview presented the satirical story as verified fact, claiming:
“The town with the most roundabouts per square kilometre in the UK is Cwmbran, a Welsh town, which has an average of 2.75 roundabouts per square kilometre.”

Even more surprising? This AI-generated summary pushed the fake fact to the top of search results, and other outlets like Yahoo picked it up as legitimate news. “My worry is Yahoo is actually a pretty trusted source and people might read that and believe it,” Ben told the BBC.

“I was shocked and worried to find that the joke was being presented by Google’s AI Overview feature as real information.”
“It shows how fake news can spread through trusted outlets, while AI was repurposing content from publishers and taking away traffic.”

Google acknowledged the issue and is reportedly looking into it. Still, the incident raises bigger questions about how easily false information can be legitimized—and persist—even when its creator clarifies the joke. Even after updating the original article to clearly mark it as an April Fools’ joke, AI continues to surface it without context.

This isn’t Google’s first AI slip-up. Previous errors included suggesting people “eat rocks for minerals” or use glue to stick cheese to pizza. Apple’s AI has also misfired, once summarizing a set of BBC news alerts into completely false headlines.

Ben, once known for his lighthearted blog humor, says the experience has put him off publishing similar jokes in the future:
“It’s not a dangerous story, but it shows how fake news can easily spread. If it was a bigger story I’d made up I imagine it could have spread further.”

And so, the town of Cwmbran, once fictitiously crowned the roundabout capital of the world, becomes a symbol of how a little fun can spin out into a full-blown AI fiasco.

Source: