Can You Trust Google’s AI Overviews?

You might have noticed that when you Google something now, you’re often greeted with a brief AI-generated summary that pulls a variety of answers or responses from different sources. These AI overviews might be convenient and helpful, but are they actually accurate?

All in all, not really. I mean, sure, the generative AI might pull some accurate information from credible sources, but it also might gather misinformation from sites like Reddit or non-verified articles.

“These AI-generated summaries are often unreliable and can feature outright incorrect or misleading information,” Andrey Meshkov, co-founder and chief technology officer of AdGuard, told HuffPost.

“For example, when searching for medical advice, the AI might generate even potentially dangerous results, like the infamous case of an AI Overview suggesting drinking urine to treat kidney stones,” he continued.

Way too many times have I freaked myself out by Googling my bloodwork results and taking the AI overview at face value before talking to my doctor. So, yeah, maybe don’t trust these overviews for anything too important. They might help guide you, but like Wikipedia, they’re unreliable.

Even Google admits the generative AI’s limitations, affirming that it “can and will make mistakes,” as it’s “experimental and a work in progress.”

Google’s AI Overviews Can Be Harmful—But You’re Stuck With Them

“Generative AI is a type of machine learning model. Generative AI is not a human being,” Google stated. “It can’t think for itself or feel emotions. It’s just great at finding patterns.”

That being said, “It may make things up … It may misunderstand things,” Google admitted. 

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t get some accurate information from those convenient AI overviews. Just don’t make them a holy grail of sorts, and take everything with a grain of salt. If you do read helpful information from the generated content, be sure to fact-check with an actual credible source.