Google’s AI Overviews: From Viral Meme to Course Correction (Twenty Twenty-Four)

Remember that time in, like, early twenty twenty-four when Google was all hyped about its new AI thingie? You know, AI Overviews? They promised to revolutionize how we search by using fancy artificial intelligence to summarize search results. Sounds cool, right? Well, it turned out to be a total dumpster fire, at least at first.

Initial Hype and Immediate Backlash

Google, always the showman, presented AI Overviews as this huge leap forward, blending generative AI into its already powerful search engine. They were like, “Hold my beer, watch this!” But instead of a mind-blowing magic trick, we got a face-palm-worthy flop.

It didn’t take long for AI Overviews to gain notoriety, and not in a good way. The feature became infamous for spitting out info that was, to put it mildly, bonkers. It was like that friend who always chimes in with the most random, off-the-wall comments, except this friend had access to all the world’s information (and still managed to mess it up).

Examples of AI Overviews’ Failures

Here are just a few examples of AI Overviews’ greatest hits (or should we say, misses?):

• Remember that satirical article from The Onion about how rocks are the new superfood? Well, AI Overviews apparently missed the memo that it was satire and started recommending people add rocks to their diet. Yeah, not so healthy, Google.
• In another instance of AI Overviews’ questionable judgment, it began citing random Reddit posts as if they were scholarly articles. I mean, we all love a good Reddit rabbit hole, but let’s be real, it’s not exactly the Encyclopedia Britannica.
• And if those weren’t bad enough, AI Overviews also developed a knack for repeating right-wing conspiracy theories. One of its more, um, interesting claims was that Barack Obama was the first Muslim US president. Needless to say, this did not go over well.

To make matters worse, fake screenshots of AI Overviews gone rogue started popping up online. It was hard to tell what was real and what was fabricated, but it didn’t really matter. AI Overviews had become a full-blown meme, and Google was the punchline.

Google’s Response and Damage Control

To Google’s credit, they didn’t try to sweep the whole AI Overviews debacle under the rug (though, let’s be honest, they were probably tempted to). They owned up to the issues and released a blog post outlining their plan of attack to fix this hot mess.

Liz Reid, the big cheese of search at Google, stepped up and announced some major changes to AI Overviews. These changes were designed to, you know, prevent it from going full-on HAL from “2001: A Space Odyssey” on us.

• First off, Google decided to put AI Overviews on a bit of a leash when it came to humor and satire. Because clearly, the AI hadn’t quite grasped the nuances of sarcasm just yet.
• They also addressed the, shall we say, “problematic” AI Overviews that were spreading misinformation and violating Google’s content policies. No more conspiracy theories for you, AI Overviews!

So, what was Google’s excuse for this whole AI train wreck? According to Reid, the inaccuracies boiled down to a couple of key factors:

• Sometimes, AI Overviews just couldn’t handle the heat when it came to rare or unusual searches. It was like asking your dog to do your taxes – they mean well, but it’s just not gonna happen.
• And then there were the trolls, those mischievous internet gremlins who intentionally tried to “game” the system and force AI Overviews into making ridiculous claims. Because, internet.

Despite all the drama, Google maintained that most users were actually digging AI Overviews. They claimed that user feedback was positive and that the feature was making searches better. Of course, they also claimed Google Plus was going to be a thing, so take that with a grain of salt.