Google pulls AI overviews for some medical searches
is the Verge’s weekend editor. He has over 18 years of experience, including 10 years as managing editor at Engadget.
Earlier this month, The Guardian published an investigation that showed Google was serving up misleading and outright false information via its AI overviews in response to certain medical inquiries. Now those results appear to have been removed. According to the original report:
In one case that experts described as “really dangerous”, Google wrongly advised people with pancreatic cancer to avoid high-fat foods. Experts said this was the exact opposite of what should be recommended, and may increase the risk of patients dying from the disease.
In another “alarming” example, the company provided bogus information about crucial liver function tests, which could leave people with serious liver disease wrongly thinking they are healthy.
As of this morning, the AI overviews for questions like “what is the normal range for liver blood tests?” have been disabled entirely. Google declined to comment on the specific removal to The Guardian. Spokesperson Davis Thompson told The Verge that, “We invest significantly in the quality of AI Overviews, particularly for topics like health, and the vast majority provide accurate information. Our internal team of clinicians reviewed what’s been shared with us and found that in many instances, the information was not inaccurate and was also supported by high quality websites. In cases where AI Overviews miss some context, we work to make broad improvements, and we also take action under our policies where appropriate.”
But this is just one more controversy for a feature that has told people to put glue on pizza, eat rocks, and been the subject of multiple lawsuits.
Update January 11th: Added comment from Google.
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