Google finds itself in the midst of a whirlwind as it scrambles to address the fallout from its new AI Overview feature, which has been serving up bizarre and inaccurate responses to users’ queries. According to a report by The Verge, the tech giant is taking swift action to manually disable AI Overviews responses for specific searches.
In an email, Google spokesperson Meghann Farnsworth confirmed to the media outlet that the tech company is “taking swift action” to remove AI Overviews on certain queries “and using these examples to develop broader improvements to our systems, some of which have already started to roll out.”
AI Overview, powered by Google’s large language model Gemini, aims to provide concise summaries of search topics directly in search results. However, the rollout has been plagued by issues, with users encountering everything from recommendations to glue their pizza to suggestions of ingesting rocks for health benefits. Social media is flooded with screenshots showcasing AI Overview’s ridiculous and erroneous responses.
https://t.co/W09ssjvOkJ pic.twitter.com/6ALCbz6EjK
— SG-r01 (@heavenrend) May 22, 2024
her pic.twitter.com/FGbvO923gk
— Tim Onion (@oneunderscore__) May 23, 2024
Google, FFS. pic.twitter.com/UHtLQ5SdpG
— Melanie Mitchell (@MelMitchell1) May 23, 2024
Found one thing Google’s new AI Overview definitely gets right pic.twitter.com/ixJZjCsquM
— Brian Merchant (@bcmerchant) May 23, 2024
It may sound funny but search engines only act like this if they are very sick. pic.twitter.com/iGYzGStmhA
— Anosognosiogenesis (@pookleblinky) May 24, 2024
Still, Google maintains that most AI Overviews provide accurate and high-quality information and blames some of the reported issues on unusual queries. Critics, however, argue that the recent blunders have tarnished the company’s reputation for delivering reliable search results.
The debacle surrounding AI Overview is not an isolated incident for Google. Similar missteps have plagued the tech giant’s previous AI initiatives, such as the hasty release of Bard and Gemini image generator. Bard’s inaccuracies about outer space led to a significant drop in Google’s market value, while Gemini faced criticism for its historical inaccuracies and questionable image outputs.
These blunders underscores the mounting pressure on Google to keep pace with its competitors like Microsoft and OpenAI in a rapidly evolving AI landscape. This “move fast and break things” mentality, however, seems to be prioritizing speed over quality and that is something which needs to be addressed immediately.
