Recently, Google Search, the world’s most popular search engine, has been undergoing major changes. The functional foundation remains the same, but with a twist: AI. The company has been implementing artificial intelligence through the AI ​​Overviews feature to offer more useful and direct results. Now, the head of Google Search answered a series of key questions related to AI Overviews in an interview with the Financial Times.
Melissa Heikkilä, AI correspondent for the Financial Times, conducted the interview with Elizabeth Reid. They spoke further about the AI ​​Overviews feature, its main goal, and how it has changed the internet search landscape. Reid also addressed some controversial topics, such as the accuracy of AI-powered results or the negative impact on traffic and revenue that some publishers report.
If you’re not familiar with AI Overviews, they are results that, in a brief summary, attempt to offer a more direct answer to your search or question. They don’t appear in every search, but they do appear in many. The feature’s early days were rocky due to unreliable or even potentially dangerous results. However, Google has been working hard ever since to make AI Overviews truly useful. Today, we can say they’ve succeeded. There’s still room for improvement, though.
How have things been going since the launch of AI Overviews?
The interviewer begins by asking Reid about how the last year has gone since the launch of AI Overviews in Google Search. According to the executive, everything is going smoothly. Changes to the search engine are driving more search queries from users. She points out that the way people ask questions has changed significantly.
Previously, users only received the classic results in the form of websites related to their search. However, they had to manually compile information from multiple sources. This led people to view Google Search as a utilitarian tool more than anything else.
Now, AI Overviews is able to understand queries (or prompts) in natural language. The power of artificial intelligence allows the search engine to understand direct user questions and provide even more direct and concise answers accordingly. Reid asserts that this change has significantly increased human curiosity. People now ask many more questions than before, not only for utilitarian purposes but also to solve simple day-to-day doubts or obtain new knowledge. Being able to ask more specific and detailed questions is extremely helpful.
“A three-year-old will go: ‘Why, why, why, why, why?’ But, as an adult, you don’t assume the person you ask the question knows the answer. You don’t know if you have enough time. You don’t know if it’s worth the effort. And so you don’t ask those questions. But if you lower the barrier to asking the question, then people just come. They have a lot more questions and they ask anything these days.”
Is Google thinking about a conversational experience for Search?
Heikkilä also touched on the changes that tools like ChatGPT have brought to the way we interact with technology. She points out that people have become accustomed to chatbots. That is, they are increasingly comfortable asking questions as if they were talking to another person. So, the interviewer asks if Google Search will adopt similar capabilities.
“We’re not looking in that direction in the same way: to the extent that somebody will think of a chatbot as talking to something that feels personified and you can ask it, ‘How was your day?’ then expect a response,” Reid said. She thinks that Google Search should remain an information-focused tool.
Her answer makes sense, especially considering that Google already has AI-powered products that offer a conversational experience—like Gemini Live. That said, the company has been working toward a middle ground with Google Search’s AI mode. This mode enables a chatbot-like UI. However, the focus remains on AI-powered summaries, leaving the classic links in the background—although you can still check them out.
Google Search’s AI mode has some advantages over more conversational experiences. For example, it allows you to ask follow-up questions to a previous query.
Are Google’s AI Overviews results really accurate?
Heikkilä also wanted to talk about the accuracy of Google’s AI Overviews in the interview. She recalled past episodes of misleading results. She cites as an example some outputs where AI Overviews suggested things like eating rocks or glue.
According to Reid, these problems arose for two main reasons. First, Google intended for AI Overviews to be enriched with other people’s personal experiences when appropriate. However, the company’s systems initially didn’t correctly detect jokes, like ironic or sarcastic comments, on platforms like Reddit, where they are very common.
The second problem was the errors inherent to generative AI. No matter how much effort developers put into a product, all AI will always have a small percentage of misleading output. This is known in the AI ​​world as “hallucinations.” Developers must work to minimize the rate of hallucinations. Currently, AI Overviews are much less prone to this type of misleading output than before.
Reid also had an interesting point to make about AI tools. She stated that developers must choose whether they want their service to be factual, creative, or conversational. Chatbots typically combine these properties to varying degrees. Therefore, developers must carefully balance what they’re looking for with their AI platform. For example, in the case of Google Search, the factual aspect takes on special importance. However, on platforms like Character AI, creativity should ideally be the primary aspect.
“If you’re building a product that’s designed to be conversational, you might weigh it one way. But in the case of [Google] Search, we’ve weighted factuality and put extensive work into that. We’ve continued to raise the bar on that for the past several months,” Reid stated.
Is AI Overviews prone to AI jailbreaking?
Have you ever heard of AI jailbreaking? It’s a technique that seeks to bypass platform security barriers through specially designed prompts. There are also situations where websites integrate “hidden code” that seeks to manipulate AI-powered search results. Heikkilä asked the head of Google Search how the company handles this.
“From a security perspective, on the prompting side, everyone is working to figure out how to avoid jailbreaking or finding loopholes that make AI models bypass their guardrails. We’re doing that,” Reid responded. “Our models are trained not just to try and be highly accurate, but to try and base their answers on information on the web.”
That said, Reid also noted that users should pay attention to what they get in their searches, especially if it’s important stuff. The AI ​​Overviews feature makes this easier by providing links to where the information was obtained to generate the summaries. This way, people can check the accuracy of the output firsthand.
“AI Overviews aren’t designed to be a standalone product. They are designed to get you started and then help you dive deeper. And so, when it’s important, the idea is that you get some context on where to check and then you can choose to double-check more on some of them.”
What about seemingly reliable results with small errors undetectable by many?
Regarding the precision of the results of AI Overviews, the interviewer asked the head of Google Search about those outputs with small errors that are undetectable for people without certain knowledge about a specific area. That is, misleading results that users may take as true. In some cases, these could be potentially dangerous, such as when seeking medical advice.
“[Regarding] questions of finance, questions on medical topics — we try to be thoughtful in our answers about both. Maybe we should not give a response at all or where we think we can give you something to get started, but we should recommend you talk to a doctor, dig in more and find out details,” Reid stated. She says this approach is necessary because not everyone has the opportunity to consult a professional.
“So, if you said, ‘I’m not going to answer anything, even some basics about a rash,’ and you’re a stressed mother and it’s the middle of the night, and you can’t reach someone in some part of the world, do you not help them?”
Is AI Overviews taking views from websites?
The interview touched on a controversial topic regarding Google Search’s AI Overviews feature. Some publishers have complained of fewer visitors—and therefore, revenue—after the system’s implementation. After all, it reduces the need for users to visit web pages unless they want to dig deeper into the topic or verify the accuracy of the output.
According to Reid, AI Overviews is actually a great opportunity for publishers. As mentioned earlier, AI Overviews’ understanding of natural language is exponentially multiplying users’ interest in asking questions. This, according to the executive, offers exposure to a greater variety of websites through links related to the output.
“What you see with something like AI Overviews, when you bring the friction down for users, is people search more and that opens up new opportunities for websites, for creators, for publishers to access. And they get higher-quality clicks,” Raid said.
Will Google Search ever be paid?
Heikkilä even asked if we’ll ever see a paid version of Google. The question is interesting, since Google has long been known for being completely free. However, companies may have to rethink some business models in the era of AI, where developing and training models can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Never say never about what the future will hold,” Reid said. “Ensuring that search in general, the essence of it, is available for free, to allow access to information, will be important. There may be some aspects for people who have subscriptions in the future. But we want to have the core of search available to everyone for free, yes.” So, even if Google Search receives paid “premium” features, the core experience will remain free.
Will Google explore more search methodologies in the future?
Lastly, Heikkilä also asked Reid about the future of online search. More specifically, she mentioned potential new approaches or search modalities.
Reid said that Google’s main goal is to simplify the search experience as much as possible for everyone. To achieve this, they see the potential use of integrating multimodal capabilities—that is, using voice, images, or multimedia to generate searches. It’s not surprising that Google already has similar capabilities. However, she could be referring to implementing them in a more powerful way, supported by the power of AI.
The head of Google Search also envisions a future where the search experience is more personalized. That is, where results are adapted to your user profile. AI’s “learning” capabilities seem ideal for achieving something like this.
You can read the full interview at this link.
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