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Image credit: Jon Accarrino / MidJourney
Editor’s note: This article has a companion piece, “AI Overviews And The Future of News: Are AI-Generated Summaries And Zero-Click Search Experiences The New Normal?” here.
Google’s AI Overviews, which provide direct answers to user queries, have been touted as a game-changer for search. However, the technology’s current limitations have resulted in some hilariously inaccurate and even dangerous responses. From recommending users eat pizza glue and rocks, to spreading conspiracy theories, AI Overviews have showcased the pitfalls of relying on algorithms to curate and synthesize information (see my TVNewsCheck article “AI Overviews And The Future of News: Are AI-Generated Summaries And Zero-Click Search Experiences The New Normal?” for some examples).
Fresh off the heels of Google’s “woke” Gemini AI images, the virality of AI Overview fails was another incredible embarrassment for the company. As a result, AI Overview responses are much less frequent right now while Google cleans up this PR nightmare. But there’s little doubt that they will be back soon, and much improved.
“How quickly Google can get this cleaned up is yet to be seen,” says David Arkin, strategic media consultant and founder of David Arkin Consulting. “But the larger point — or concern — for publishers is that the summarizing information will lead to less clicks.”
So, how should news-based publishers respond to the potential threat of AI Overviews? Many companies have already been dealing with organic traffic issues from Google for years.