Key Takeaways
- Google’s AI Overview feature had a rocky start due to inaccuracies and potentially dangerous suggestions.
- Google now has a new Search feature in testing, similar to AI Overviews but with a different UI.
- The new feature lacks clear AI-generated labeling, making it challenging for regular users to discern between human-generated and AI-generated content.
Google’s AI Overview feature is a good idea with a bad execution, and it looks like Google has a second similar Search feature in the works.
The tech giant’s AI Overviews were first spotted in action all the way back in May 2023, and officially announced at Google I/O earlier this year. Essentially just concise summaries of answers to your search queries, the feature got off to a rocky start when it started showing users inaccurate and potentially dangerous results, like suggesting that astronauts found cats on the moon, advising users to eat rocks, suggesting users to add glue to their pizza to ensure its cheese sticks nicely, and more.
Google eventually fixed its Overviews problem by cutting back on them, and ensuring that the tool doesn’t source information from websites like Reddit and Quora, unless absolutely necessary.
Considering that the tool’s debut was executed poorly, it has left a bad taste for many. That is why we’re going to approach Google’s upcoming Overview-like feature with skepticism.
The new tool, highlighted by Barry Schwartz on X (Twitter), via Android Authority, was first believed to be a tweaked version of AI Overviews. However, Google was quick to point out that the new UI users might be seeing on top of their Search results is a completely separate feature which is currently in testing, and unrelated to AI Overviews.
Looks like it serves the same purpose
The fact that Overviews and the supposed new in-testing tool highlight the same information, albeit in slightly different words, is what prompted most to believe that the new tool might just be an extension of Overviews.
More importantly though, users that spotted the new tool were alarmed by its omission of prominent ‘Generated by AI’ labeling. In the case of Overviews, a clear label is presented right at the top of the summary, as seen in the (left) image above. In the case of Google’s new in-development feature, the AI-generated label remains hidden until users press the tiny ‘More’ button below the summary, making it challenging for a regular discern between human-generated and AI-generated content.
Considering that the tool is still in testing, it is likely that Google will introduce a more conspicuous AI label to it. Regardless, based on its first looks, the feature appears to serve the same purpose as Overviews, making it kind of redundant, at least in the US.
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