Google Cuts Back 'AI Overview' Search

Google has significantly scaled back its use of AI-generated "answers" on its search results page. It's also sourcing less of the "facts" from discussion forums such as Reddit.

The changes are to the "AI Overview" feature, which replaced a similar feature called "Search Generative Experience". In both cases, it meant Google creating text that appeared at the top of the search results page, ahead of the normal list of links to relevant websites.

The feature is primarily designed to answer questions without the need for the user to visit a website. The "answers" are a summary of information on external websites, something that annoyed many website operators who rely on visitors from Google to make money from on-site ads.

Taking The AI Out Of Entertainment

While apparently rare, some users found clearly wrong and even dangerous information in AI Overview responses, including claims that it was safe to eat rocks. These were often drawn from satirical websites or from users posting on sites such as Reddit who were clearly not being sincere.

Ironically Google's attempts to fix the problem by putting more weight on answers from credible sources backfired slightly. At one point it again started recommending rocks as safe to eat, this time quoting reliable news sites that had reported the original blunder. In this case, the AI had failed to understand the context of the article.

Now a company called BrightEdge, which tracks search trends, says Google has dialed back the feature. The AI Overview responses now appear on around 7 percent of results pages, down from a peak of 15 percent. Some categories have seen even bigger drops, with e-commerce queries now getting an AI Overview 9 percent of the time, down from 26 percent, while the figure for queries about entertainment is now virtually zero. (Source: searchengineland.com)

Quora No More

Meanwhile Google appears to be focusing more on whether an AI Overview response may be sufficient. They are now much more likely to appear if a search includes specific question terms such as "how to" and "best".

Other changes include an 85 percent drop in the number of AI Overview responses based on Reddit posts and a virtual elimination of citations of Quora. Responses involving financial topics now get a warning, similar to that which already existed for health topics. When an AI Overview does appear, it now takes up less of the screen. (Source: androidpolice.com)

What's Your Opinion?

Are these smart changes by Google? Will refinements makes AI results more useful or is it a fundamentally flawed approach for a search engine? Should users have the option to only get traditional search results made up of site links?