Google admits its AI Overviews can generate “some odd, inaccurate” outcomes

Google on Thursday admitted that its AI Overviews device, which delivers AI-generated responses to person search queries, wants enchancment.

Whereas the search large mentioned it examined the brand new function extensively earlier than launching it two weeks in the past, it acknowledged that the expertise produces “some odd and misguided overviews.” Examples embrace suggesting utilizing glue to get cheese to stay to pizza, or ingesting urine to move kidney stones rapidly. The rollback is the most recent occasion of a tech firm prematurely speeding out an AI product to place itself as a pacesetter within the intently watched area.

As a result of Google’s AI Overviews generated unhelpful responses to queries, the corporate is scaling it again whereas persevering with to make enhancements, Google’s head of search, Liz Reid, mentioned in an organization weblog publish Thursday. 

“… Some odd, inaccurate or unhelpful AI Overviews definitely did present up. And whereas these have been usually for queries that folks do not generally do, it highlighted some particular areas that we wanted to enhance,” Reid mentioned partially. 

Nonsensical questions corresponding to, “What number of rocks ought to I eat?” generated questionable content material from AI Overviews, Reid mentioned, due to the shortage of helpful, associated recommendation on the web. She added that the AI Overviews function can also be vulnerable to taking sarcastic content material from dialogue boards at face worth, and probably misinterpreting webpage language to current inaccurate info in response to Google searches. 

“In a small variety of circumstances, we’ve seen AI Overviews misread language on webpages and current inaccurate info. We labored rapidly to deal with these points, both by way of enhancements to our algorithms or by way of established processes to take away responses that do not adjust to our insurance policies,” Reid wrote. 

For now, the corporate is scaling again on AI-generated overviews by including “triggering restrictions for queries the place AI Overviews weren’t proving to be as useful.” Google additionally says it tries to not present AI Overviews for arduous information subjects “the place freshness and factuality are vital.”

The corporate mentioned it has additionally made updates “to restrict the usage of user-generated content material in responses that might provide deceptive recommendation.”