The new Google AI Overview feature is offering responses to queries that range from bizarre and funny to very dangerous.
• Bogdan Petrovan / Android Authority
Google rolled out its new AI Overviews feature in the United States this week, and to say that the launch hasn’t gone smoothly would be an understatement. The tool is meant to augment some Google searches with an AI response to the query, thereby saving you from having to click any further. But many of the results produced range from bizarre and funny to inaccurate and outright dangerous, to the point where Google should really consider shutting down the feature.
The issue is that Google’s model works by summarizing the content from some of the top results that the search query elicits, but we all know that search results aren’t listed in order of accuracy. The most popular sites and those with the best search engine optimization (SEO) will naturally appear earlier in the rundown, whether they provide you with a good answer or not. It’s a matter for each site whether they want to give their readers accurate information, but when the AI Overview then regurgitates content that could endanger someone’s welfare, that’s on Google.
The Onion founder Tim Keck ( @oneunderscore__ ) gave an example of this on X yesterday. In his post , the first screenshot showed the response to the search query, “How many rocks should I eat each day?” in which the AI Overview summary stated, “According to UC Berkley geologists, people should eat at least one small rock per day.”
X/@oneunderscore__
The second screenshot showed a headline of the article from his own publication, from which it appears that Google’s AI drew the advice. The Onion is a popular satirical news outlet that publishes made-up articles for comedic effect. It naturally appears near the top of the Google search for this unusual query, but it shouldn’t be relied upon for dietary or medical advice.
In another viral example from X, Peter Yang ( @peteryang ) shows an example of Google AI Overview answering the query “cheese not sticking to pizza” with […]
Shut it down: Google’s AI search results are beyond terrible
