Google Pulls AI Health Summaries After Concerns over Misleading Information

Google has removed certain AI-generated health summaries from its search results after an investigation by The Guardian found the feature was delivering misleading and unsafe medical information.

The changes affect AI Overviews, generative summaries that appear at the top of Google Search results. The company pulled these summaries for specific health-related queries such as “what is the normal range for liver blood tests” and “what is the normal range for liver function tests” after experts warned the outputs could give users false reassurance about serious health conditions.

The Guardian reported that the AI summaries previously displayed numerical ranges for liver tests without crucial context, failing to account for factors like age, sex, ethnicity, and clinical history that clinicians say are essential for interpreting results. 

Without this context, people with liver disease could mistakenly believe their results fall within normal limits and delay medical care.

After The Guardian report was published, searches for the specific phrases it highlighted no longer trigger AI Overviews. However slightly altered queries can still produce AI-generated summaries, suggesting the removals are selective rather than comprehensive. Some users reported that in tests, these variants sometimes still brought up AI content.

A Google spokesperson told The Guardian that the company does not comment on “individual removals within Search”, adding that it works to “make broad improvements” when AI Overviews miss important context. 

The spokesperson said an internal team of clinicians had reviewed the examples raised and found that, in many cases, the information was supported by high-quality sources.