Google pulls AI Overviews from select medical searches after Guardian investigation

Google has removed AI Overviews from search results for certain medical queries following an investigation by the Guardian that found the feature was providing potentially misleading health information.

The Guardian had reported that AI Overviews were returning questionable responses to queries such as what is the normal range for liver blood tests, presenting numerical ranges without accounting for variables including nationality, sex, ethnicity or age, which could lead users to incorrectly assume their results were healthy.

According to the Guardian, AI Overviews have since been removed from results for queries including what is the normal range for liver blood tests and what is the normal range for liver function tests. However, the publication found that variations of those searches, such as lft reference range or lft test reference range, were still capable of triggering AI-generated summaries.

Independent checks carried out several hours after the Guardian published its report found that none of the tested variations displayed AI Overviews, although Google continued to offer users the option to ask the same questions in AI Mode. In several instances, the Guardian’s article on the issue appeared as the top search result.

A Google spokesperson informed the Guardian that the company does not comment on individual removals within Search and instead focuses on making broad improvements. The spokesperson stated that an internal team of clinicians had reviewed the queries highlighted by the Guardian and found that, in many instances, the information was not inaccurate and was supported by high-quality websites.

TechCrunch reported that it has reached out to Google for further comment. Last year, Google announced a set of updates aimed at improving Search for healthcare-related use cases, including enhanced overviews and health-focused AI models.

Vanessa Hebditch, director of communications and policy at the British Liver Trust, informed the Guardian that the removal was welcome but cautioned that the wider issue of AI Overviews being used for health-related information remained unaddressed.