Google launched a slew of AI features during the Google I/O conference. One of the features that was introduced was AI Overviews. This feature is designed to scan Google search results and condense the findings into one AI-generated result. While the feature sounds like a helpful alternative to skimming a bunch of different websites, there are definitely some issues that need to be ironed out before it can be completely functional.
Forbes has reported how Twitter users have taken to sharing screenshots of the AI Overviews feature generating hilariously wrong answers to some queries. Viral tweets show the AI advising users to put glue on their pizza and eat rocks.
There have also been instances of the AI getting basic facts wrong, such as implying pythons are mammals and claiming that there are no countries in Africa whose names start with the letter K.
The issue seems to stem from the fact that not all Google search results are factual. The internet is filled with jokes, misinformation, propaganda, and parody websites. The AI, however, is probably not trained to detect and filter out sarcasm and misinformation. It simply parrots what the search results show and hence, if the search results are inaccurate, the AI overview will regurgitate the wrong information.
Google spokesperson Meghann Farnsworth told The Verge that “Many of the examples we’ve seen have been uncommon queries, and we’ve also seen examples that were doctored or that we couldn’t reproduce,” and that AI Overviews mostly generate “high-quality information”. Farnsworth also confirmed that the company is taking “swift action” to remove AI Overviews on specific queries “where appropriate under our content policies, and using these examples to develop broader improvements to our systems, some of which have already started to roll out.”
We should also keep in mind that the current version of the feature is just a glimpse of what the company revealed last week. There’s a lot of promise in this feature which includes multistep reasoning for intricate queries, the capacity to produce an AI-organized results page, and video search in Google Lens. Google just needs to take a step back and get the basics right.
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