Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
Do me a favor and Google something. Anything. Drawing a blank? Try, "how to clear iPhone cache."
I bet, instead of getting a lineup of trusty blue links for you to click and read through (including ZDNET's own definitive guide on the subject), you're greeted by an AI-generated paragraph at the top that answers your question before you even scroll. That's Google's AI Overviews, and while it does often give you handy summaries meant to save you time, it also steers you away from publishers who are putting in the actual work and research to create the great content that Google is actively scraping.
Also: Fed up with AI scraping your content? This open-source bot blocker can help - here's how
A recent Pew Research Center study tracked 900 US adults and found that, when an AI Overview appears, users click a traditional search link only 8% of the time -- versus 15% when no summary is shown. About 58% of adults saw at least one AI Overview during their searches, and only 1% of those led to a click on a cited source within the summary. Perhaps more troubling, they were likelier to end their browsing session after seeing an AI Overview -- suggesting many people stop investigating once the AI has spoken.
Even if you don't care about AI Overviews causing a devestating impact on journalism, there are concerns these AI-generated summaries can provide misleading and or even flat-out wrong information. Remember the mid‑2024 fiasco when AI Overviews confidently recommended using glue to keep pizza cheese from sliding off? Yeah, that really happened.
Also: People are Googling fake sayings to see AI Overviews explain them - and it's hilarious
What's frustrating is Google still hasn't created an official "off" switch. But there is good news: workarounds exist. While you can't outright disable AI Overviews, you can get back to classic search experience.
How to hide or avoid AI Overviews in Google Search
As mentioned above, you can't really turn off AI Overviews -- at least not officially. But you can hide and avoid them. Here's how.
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