- Several users have shared screenshots showing Google AI Overviews showing incorrect results for search queries.
- A Google spokesperson said this was a deliberate attempt by a user to disrupt the functionality.
- One user built a website that generates old “web” style Google search results without any AI answers.
Google's AI summary feature doesn't seem to be going according to plan. Users are saying: AI Overview generated incorrect answers to search queries.
When a user searched for “cheese not sticking to pizza,” Google AI Overview suggested using glue to solve the problem — interestingly, the source was a Reddit comment from 11 years ago.
Google has removed this source from its AI overview, but it remains a top result in Google searches.
Another example is when a user searches for “how many legs does an elephant have,” to which the Google AI overview responds: Elephants have two legs, five toes on the front feet and four toes on the back feet..
The tool proved to be politically incorrect in some instances. For example, when a user searched for “how many Muslim presidents has the United States had,” Google AI Overview responded with the following: Barack Hussein Obama is considered the first Muslim president of the United States.Even Obama wouldn't believe this.
Google’s insensitive response
As expected, Google has done its best to defend AI Overviews.
“The examples we saw were generally very unusual queries and not representative of most people's search experiences.” – Google spokesperson
But I think this is a futile attempt. Defending dysfunctional AI systemsGoogle processes around 99,000 search queries per second, so it's very hard to determine which queries are “unusual” — after all, there may be multiple users whose cheese doesn't stick to their pizza.
The spokesperson further stated that users are deliberately trying to sabotage the technology by asking unusual questions. Again, this is a very irresponsible statement from a Google representative. After all, you can't blame users for a faulty product.
Let’s look at another example search. When a user searches about the health benefits of tobacco, AI Overview went down for promoting tobaccoIt is said to enhance feelings of relaxation, euphoria and alertness.
He also recommended nicotine to improve concentration and memory. No warnings about the use of dangerous products such as tobaccoAlso, the response does not warn users about the harmful effects of tobacco.
Now, calling such a common search query an intentional attempt A sign of distrust from tech giants like GoogleIt's entirely possible that someone who is trying to quit smoking will read this and be motivated rather than helped to quit. But instead of taking responsibility for such failures, Google blames users.
Read more: Google restricts Gemini AI chatbot from responding to election-related questions
Disgruntled users
Journalist and author Ernie Smith We found a way to avoid these irrelevant AI suggestionsSmith built a website that redirected all searches through Google to avoid the AI-generated answers. The website garnered a lot of attention, surpassing the traffic of the blog Smith had been running for 10 years.
But Google isn't the only one behaving irresponsibly in this regard: users are also using the opportunity to create fake screenshots of AI Overviews, with popular artists such as Lil Nas X even sharing fake AI Overview results on depression.
The trend seems to be moving towards new meme formats, where even a tech giant like Google can't inspect every single screenshot.
At a time when Google is hitting the gas with its AI features, issues like this are to be expected, but the company needs to be a bit more restrained in its response. We hope that Google will fix this error soon and provide a much improved AI Overview.
