Next time you turn to Google for help with a question, you may receive an “experimental” answer.
According to the US media company Nexstar, Google has recently begun testing generative artificial intelligence tools in search results. Now, when you enter a question or a series of keywords, you may see a generated piece of text at the top.
Google announced this feature last year, stating that the AI-generated summaries are intended to help you quickly grasp a topic. Below the AI summary are some links that allow for further in-depth searching.
Above the text is a disclaimer: “AI-generated summaries are experimental.”
Google states that the AI-driven summaries are not suitable for all searches.
Google also acknowledges that these summaries may not always hit the mark. The company writes, “Because generative AI is experimental and a work in progress, it may make errors.”
The AI tool not only sometimes “misinterprets” your question or the nature of the search topic but may also entirely fabricate something.
“When generative AI invents an answer, it’s called a hallucination,” the company says, explaining that this is due to the workings of large language models (LLMs). Google states that these models not only collate information already published on the internet but also attempt to “predict which words will come next based on a user’s input.”
According to Google’s support service, if you ask a question about the future, there may be an example of a “hallucination.” If you ask a generative AI tool who will win a gold medal at the 2032 Olympics, it may provide an answer, even though the actual answer is unknowable.
If you wish to remove AI summaries from search results, Google offers instructions on how to do so.