- Some users are struggling with Google's new AI-powered search tool.
- Certain searches return responses that are incomprehensible or just plain wrong.
- Google said the examples were “extremely rare queries and are not representative of most people's experience.”
Google promised radical improvements to its popular search engine at I/O last week, but users are already pushing it past its limits.
In some cases, the new artificial intelligence-powered tool gives answers that aren't exact — some are a bit gibberish, others are just flat out wrong.
It's called AI Overview: Instead of giving you a list of third-party web pages, the new Google Search feature creates a new box with conversational answers collected from across the web and powered by generative AI.
“Google will Google you for you,” head of search Liz Reid said onstage last week.
But searches shared on X gave users conflicting instructions on how to boil taro, and even prompted them to grab scissors and run away because the AI took a joke search seriously.
When we asked if dogs have ever played in the NHL, Google replied that yes, they have, perhaps because it thought it was a charity event for rescued puppies.
Another time, Google's AI assistant said a series of presidents had graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, citing a webpage that said the school's students shared names with U.S. presidents.
Inverse editor-in-chief Jake Kleinman posted on X that a search for the biggest flops of 2024 returned a list from a website that speculates on future box office success. Based on that article, AI Overview confidently stated that movies that haven't even been released yet are already flops.
A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that the examples being shared online “are extremely rare queries and are not representative of the majority of people's experiences.” The spokesperson said that “the vast majority of our AI summaries provide high-quality information.”
A spokesperson said these examples only started gaining attention in search thanks to social media posts. Google said it has seen an increase in search usage and user satisfaction since the release of its AI Overview.
“We conducted extensive testing before launching this new experience, and we'll continue to use these individual examples to refine the system as we go,” the spokesperson said.
Google said at I/O that AI Overviews is available across the US and will be rolled out to 1 billion users by the end of the year, but some users are already looking for ways to disable it.
A Google spokesperson said the company plans to introduce a “web” filter that will only show links.
In addition to reliability issues, AI also raises concerns from business owners who have long relied on SEO to drive hits and advertising dollars.
They worry that AI Overview will dramatically reduce search traffic to their websites.
“Links included in AI summaries will receive more clicks than if the page appeared as a traditional web listing for that query,” Reid said in a blog post, adding that Google “remains focused on sending valuable traffic to publishers and creators.”
On February 28, Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider, along with 31 other media groups, filed a $2.3 billion lawsuit against Google in a Dutch court, alleging damages caused by the company's advertising practices.
