Google scraps AI Overviews for certain medical queries: Find out why

Following an investigation by a prominent news outlet that found misleading information in Google’s AI Overviews for health-related searches, the search giant has removed the AI-assisted summaries for health-specific queries.

The investigation found that asking “what is the normal range for liver blood tests” yielded results that failed to consider crucial factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, and nationality. It is suspected that this omission might lead users to misinterpret their health results.

The Guardian reported that AI Overviews have been eliminated for queries like “what is the normal range for liver blood tests” and “what is the normal range for liver function tests.” However, variations of the same queries, such as “lft reference range,” are still offering AI summaries.

As reported by TechCrunch, there were no AI Overviews upon testing these queries shortly after the Guardian's report, although Google still provided an option to ask in AI Mode.

The interesting twist is: the top result often directed users to the Guardian's article discussing the removal.

The company does not comment on specific removals but is committed to making meaningful improvements, a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying.

They noted that Google's internal health experts reviewed the queries in question and found that the information was not necessarily inaccurate and was supported by reputable sources.

Vanessa Hebditch, the director of communications and policy at the British Liver Trust, cherished the removal but expressed concern that this action addresses only a single issue rather than AI Overviews' wider implications in health-related searches.