Google Pulls Some Health-Related AI Overviews as Industry Goes All-In on Healthcare

Google has quietly pulled back some AI-generated health summaries at the same time that the industry is seemingly racing to embed AI into healthcare. The move came after The Guardian found some of the information provided by the feature was misleading.

The Guardian reported Sunday that Google had removed AI-generated search summaries for the queries “what is the normal range for liver blood tests” and “what is the normal range for liver function tests.” As of Tuesday morning, those searches no longer provide an AI Overview at the top of the page. Instead, users are shown short excerpts pulled from traditional search results.

According to The Guardian, the AI Overviews for those liver-related searches and others had “served up inaccurate health information and put people at risk of harm.” For example, the summaries reportedly provided for the liver test searchers included “masses of numbers, little context and no accounting for nationality, sex,…