Google is removing AI reviews for some medical queries

Following investigation by the Guardian that found that Google AI Overviews offered misleading information in response to some health-related questions, the company appears to have removed AI Overviews for some of those questions.

For example, the Guardian first reported that when users asked “what is the normal range for liver blood tests”, they would be shown numbers that did not take into account factors such as race, gender, ethnicity or age, leading them to believe their results were healthy when they weren’t.

Now, says the Guardian AI reviews have been removed from the results for “what is the normal range for liver blood tests” and “what is the normal range for liver function tests”. However, he found that variations on these queries, such as “ftt reference range” or “ftt test reference range”, could result in AI-generated summaries.

When I tried these queries this morning – several hours after the Guardian published its story – none of them resulted in me seeing AI Overview, although Google still gave me the option to make the same query in AI mode. In several cases, the top result was actually the Guardian article about the removal.

A Google spokesperson told the Guardian that the company “does not comment on individual removals within Search” but that it is working to “make broad improvements”. The spokesman also said that an internal team of clinicians reviewed the queries raised by the Guardian and found that “in many cases, the information was not inaccurate and was also supported by high-quality websites”.

TechCrunch has reached out to Google for additional comment. Last year, the company announced new features aimed at improving Google Search for healthcare use cases, including improved insights and health-focused AI models.

Vanessa Hebditch, director of communications and policy at the British Liver Trust, told the Guardian the removal was “extremely new”, but added: “Our biggest concern with all of this is that it doesn’t pick up a single search result and Google can just shut down AI Overview for that, but it doesn’t address the bigger issue of AI Overview.”