By Andrew Gregory
Publication Date: 2026-01-24 17:00:00
Google’s AI Overviews search engine cites YouTube more often than any other medical website when answering questions about health conditions, according to a study that raises new questions about a tool used by two billion people every month.
The company has said its AI summaries, which appear at the top of search results and use generative AI to answer users’ questions, are “reliable” and cite reputable medical sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Mayo Clinic.
However, a study that analyzed responses to more than 50,000 health queries collected using Google searches from Berlin found that the most cited source was YouTube. The video sharing platform is the second most visited website in the world after Google itself and is owned by Google.
Researchers at SE Ranking, a search engine optimization platform, found that YouTube accounted for 4.43% of all AI Overview citations. No hospital network, no government health portal, no medical association or academic institution came…
