Google Pulls AI Overviews From Certain Medical Searches After Misinformation Claims
Google has removed AI-generated overviews for specific health queries after reports showed misleading info that could impact users’ health.
For instance, the Guardian discovered that asking, “what is the normal range for liver blood tests?” gave answers without considering important factors like age, sex, or ethnicity. This could mislead people into thinking their results were normal when they were not.
Now, Google has stopped showing AI Overviews for questions like “what is the normal range for liver blood tests” and “what is the normal range for liver function tests.” However, if users ask similar questions like “lft reference range,” the AI-generated summaries might still show.
When I searched those queries after the Guardian reported the story, I did not see AI Overviews. I could still ask the same questions in AI Mode, but the top result was actually the Guardian’s article about the change.
A Google spokesperson told the Guardian that they do not discuss each specific removal in Search, but they do aim to improve their services. They mentioned that a group of doctors looked over the queries raised by the Guardian. They found that in many cases, the information was not wrong and matched with good quality websites.
TechCrunch reached out to Google for more details. Last year, Google mentioned updates to enhance Search for healthcare questions, including better overviews and AI models focused on health.
Vanessa Hebditch from the British Liver Trust shared that this removal is great news. However, she cautioned that it only fixes one issue. She believes Google needs to address the larger problem with AI Overviews for health information.