How Google’s AI Overviews work and how to disable them (they can’t be disabled)

When will my queries trigger a summary of AI-generated results? “We’ll show you an AI summary for complex queries,” Google spokesperson Mallory de Leon said. Masu. “You’ll see an AI overview in Google search results when our systems think generative AI is particularly useful, such as when you want to quickly understand information from a variety of sources.” First In our tests, it felt like the AI ​​summaries were displayed almost randomly for queries, and the summaries appeared for simple questions as well as more complex questions.

According to De Leon, AI Overview utilizes a customized version. Google’s Gemini model This is complemented by elements of the company’s search system. knowledge graph It contains billions of common facts.

One of my main hesitations about rolling out this feature is its continued potential. AI illusion, more commonly known as a lie. When you interact with Google’s Gemini chatbot, you’ll see a disclaimer at the bottom that says, “Gemini may display inaccurate information, including information about people, so please double-check your responses.” . No such disclaimer is added at the bottom of the AI ​​overview, which often simply says “Generative AI is experimental.”

When asked why he didn’t mention potential hallucinations in the introduction to AI, de Leon emphasized that Google wants to continue to provide high-quality search results, and that the company has mentioned that it has done so. did hostile red team Testing to uncover potential weaknesses in functionality.

“This generative AI implementation is rooted in search’s core quality and safety systems, with built-in guardrails to prevent low-quality or harmful information from surfacing,” she says. “AI Overview is designed to highlight information that can be easily verified by the supporting information we uncover.”

Even though you know this, you may still want to double-check that the information is actually correct by clicking on the links on the web page. However, it’s unlikely that many users, who often want answers right away, would spend the extra time reading the source material for answers generated by Google’s AI.

Liz Reid, head of search at Google, said: I recently told a colleague Lauren Goode says AI Overview will be available outside the US by the end of 2024, so more than 1 billion people could soon encounter this new feature. As someone whose job involves actually spending time with readers clicking on links and reading articles, I am naturally concerned about this change. i’m not alone.

Beyond publisher concerns, it remains unclear what additional impact Google’s AI overview may have on users.Yes, OpenAI Chat GPT While AI tools like , are hugely popular in Silicon Valley’s tech world, their capabilities could put billions of people who have never used them at risk. chatbot The text will be changed to AI-generated text. Although AI summaries are designed to save time, they can lead to unreliable results.