Following The Guardian’s story about potentially misleading results in search results, Google has disabled AI Overviews for at least two queries about «normal» liver test results.
Following The Guardian’s story about potentially misleading results in search results, Google has disabled AI Overviews for at least two queries about «normal» liver test results.
According to TechCrunch, AI Overviews are no longer showing for queries like «what is the normal range for liver blood tests» and «what is the normal range for liver function tests.» The article explains that the previously generated block could have given numerical ranges without important clarifications, including age and gender, and led a person to the wrong conclusion that the results were «normal.»
It is also noted that variations of the query such as «lft reference range» or «lft test reference range» sometimes still resulted in the appearance of AI Overviews. The author of the publication checked these formulations a few hours after the publication of the material and did not see AI overviews. Instead, text about disabling overviews could appear in the top positions of the results, and the option to ask the same question in AI Mode remained next to it. However, for other, similar formulations, these AI overviews could continue to appear
A Google spokesperson said the company does not comment on «individual removals» in Search, but is working on «broader improvements.» Google also added that an internal team of medical experts reviewed the highlighted queries and in many cases concluded that the information was not inaccurate and was based on quality sites. The British Liver Trust welcomed the shutdown, but stressed that the problem is broader than «cleaning up» individual answers.
Google announced updates to medical scenarios in search last year, including improved reviews and models. However, in queries about tests, context, units of measurement, and differences between laboratories are critical, so a mistake in a quick review can be very costly.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how Google search does not show AI Overviews for queries like «does Donald Trump have signs of dementia» — the system only shows regular links. Instead, similar questions about other presidents sometimes generate a short summary. The company says: not every query receives an answer from AI.
