Users Voice Concerns Over Google's New AI Search Overviews

Users have raised concerns that Google's new AI summaries in search results often provide false or harmful information, or pull responses from unreliable sources.

Google’s new AI overviews in search were designed to pull information from the internet to answer questions accurately and quickly. However, users have reported that the feature sometimes provides incorrect and dangerous information or relies on unverified sources.

Screenshots shared by users show examples of these AI-generated mistakes. One notable instance reported by The Verge suggested adding glue to pizza for a stickier cheese sauce.

The AI overviews have been available for months as part of Google’s experimental Search Labs. Google has cautioned that these overviews might have quality and availability limitations. Despite this, during this month's I/O event, Google announced that AI search would be rolled out to all users in the U.S., even though the underlying AI technology, Gemini, remains experimental and error-prone.

Google's “AI Overviews and more” experiment in Search Labs, previously known as SGE (Search Generative Experience), expands the availability of AI overviews and additional generative AI features in search.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai praised the AI-powered search during the I/O event, noting its ability to handle more complex queries and incorporate photos, claiming it delivers the best the web has to offer.

Concerns have arisen not only about false or dangerous information being spread through this feature but also about potential future monetization and advertisement placement within AI overviews. Although there are ways to disable AI overviews, Google has indicated that completely removing the feature may not be possible.