AI Overview (Google Feature)

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2024-12-17

What is Google's AI Overview?

AI Overview is a feature launched by Google that displays AI-generated answers for a query before the search results in its search results page. It's likely Google launched this feature in response to the AI-generated answers that appear on top of the results on Bing. On Bing, however, it's possible to disable these AI responses, while on Google, it's currently not possible.

Google's search results page for the query "google disable ai overview." It shows a section titled "AI overview" with a blue four-pointed star icon. It reads: "there is no official way to disable Google's AI overviews in search results. However, there are some workarounds (link icon): use a different browser: AI overviews are not available for queries in Safari and Firefox (link button). Install a browser extension: extensions like "disable AI overview" for chrome and "Turn off AI overview (Google SGE)" for Chrome Web Store can hide or remove AI-generated summaries from search results. (link button). Select a filtered view: after landing on the search results page, click the more tab and then click web. This will show a results page with links to actual websites. (link button). A button that reads "Show more." On the right sidebar, a link says "learn more (about AI overview)" and two items are listed as references: disable AI overview | Turn off AI overview (chrome web store) AI overviews are taking over google search. How to turn it off (CNET, Jun 4, 2024, CNET). — Google's AI Overview for the search query "`google disable ai overview`."

A screenshot of Google. The query "are chargebacks accusation of fraud" typed into the search box. An "AI Overview" from Google answers "Yes, a chargeback can be an accusation of fraud" citing a link. It continues to talk about "Chargeback fraud: when a customer intentionally disputes a legitimate transaction with their bank or credit card issuer to get a refund while keeping the product or service. This also known as friendly fraud" citing another link. — An example of Google's AI Overview answering a question wrong and misquoting a source. All of the links cited talk about "chargeback fraud," none of them make claims about about whether a chargeback itself is an accusation of fraud.

History

Google's AI overview was launched in May of 2024.

So today, AI Overviews will begin rolling out to everyone in the U.S., with more countries coming soon. That means that this week, hundreds of millions of users will have access to AI Overviews, and we expect to bring them to over a billion people by the end of the year.
https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-google-search-may-2024/ (accessed 2024-12-17)

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