After bizarre results, Google restricts AI search tool

The tech giant says the incorrect answers emerged from ‘data void’ and ‘information gap’.

Just weeks after its launch, Google is now restricting its artificial intelligence search tool, AI Overviews, after it gave several “odd, inaccurate or unhelpful” results to queries by users.

This comes after AI Overviews—which offers AI-generated summaries of Google search results—was criticized heavily on social media for producing misleading answers and misinformation. Liz Reid, Google’s head of search, said in a blog post that the tech giant is scaling down the use of AI Overviews and putting additional guardrails in place. The tool was rolled out for users in the US last month.

Soon after the launch, AI Overviews started …

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Ujjaini writes for Yesterday at The Morning Context. She joins us from MEA WorldWide, where she worked as a sub-editor, and has previously worked as an editorial intern at The Wire’s LiveWire. Ujjaini published her debut novel—Manik-er Khata—in 2022.

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