Google is facing a peculiar challenge as its new AI Overview feature is generating bizarre responses, such as advising users to apply glue to their pizza or suggesting they consume rocks. This has led to a flurry of memes on social media, prompting Google to swiftly disable AI overviews for specific searches. Users have noticed that these strange responses disappear shortly after being shared on social networks.
Challenges with AI overview
Despite being in beta since May 2023 under the name Search Generative Experience, the rollout of AI Overviews has been plagued with issues. CEO Sundar Pichai previously stated that Google had processed over a billion queries during the testing phase, highlighting the company's extensive preparation. However, it seems that efforts to optimise the cost of delivering AI answers, reportedly reduced by 80% due to hardware and technical enhancements, may have preceded the technology's readiness.
Critics have remarked on Google's shift from a company known for high-quality output to one facing scrutiny for low-quality results. An anonymous AI founder expressed this sentiment to The Verge, highlighting a perceived decline in Google's reputation.
Maintaining quality in AI outputs
In response to these concerns, Google spokesperson Meghann Farnsworth emphasised that the majority of AI Overview outputs offer “high-quality information.” Farnsworth noted that many of the odd examples cited were uncommon queries or doctored content. She confirmed that Google is actively removing AI overviews for certain queries and is using these instances to improve its systems, with some updates already in progress.
AI expert Gary Marcus, an emeritus professor at New York University, explained the challenge facing AI companies. While achieving 80% accuracy by approximating human data is relatively straightforward, the final 20% is significantly more challenging. Marcus believes this last portion might require artificial general intelligence (AGI), which current large language models, like Google's Gemini and OpenAI's GPT-4, are not equipped to deliver.
Google's struggles with AI Overview come at a time of intense competition in the AI space. Bing made significant AI investments before Google, OpenAI is reportedly developing its own search engine, and a new AI search startup has already reached a US$1 billion valuation. Moreover, a younger demographic is increasingly favouring TikTok for its user experience, adding to Google's competitive pressure.
Despite the setbacks, Google remains optimistic about AI Overview's future. The current feature is just a small part of the larger vision, which includes multistep reasoning for complex queries, AI-organised result pages, and video search in Google Lens. However, the company recognises that its immediate focus must be on improving the basics to maintain its reputation.
Gary Marcus warned that current AI models lack the ability to perform sanity checks on their outputs, highlighting a significant challenge facing the industry. Google and other AI developers must address these issues to ensure their technologies meet user expectations and maintain trust in their capabilities.
