Following a detailed investigation by the Guardian, Google has reportedly removed its AI Overviews for specific health-related queries that were found to be offering misleading information. The initial report from the Guardian highlighted instances where users searching for “what is the normal range for liver blood tests” received numerical ranges that failed to account for critical demographic factors such as nationality, sex, ethnicity, or age. This oversight had the potential to misinform users, leading them to believe their test results were healthy when they might not have been.

Subsequent to the Guardian’s findings, Google appears to have acted by removing AI Overviews from search results for queries like “what is the normal range for liver blood tests” and “what is the normal range for liver function tests.” However, the Guardian noted that variations on these queries, such as “lft reference range” or “lft test reference range,” initially could still trigger AI-generated summaries. Further checks by other users, conducted hours after the Guardian’s story was published, indicated that even these variations no longer displayed AI Overviews, with the Guardian’s article about the removals often appearing as the top search result. Despite the removal of the AI Overviews, Google continued to offer users the option to engage with the same query in AI Mode.

In response to the Guardian’s queries, a Google spokesperson stated that the company does not “comment on individual removals within Search” but affirmed its commitment to making “broad improvements.” The spokesperson also mentioned that an internal team of clinicians reviewed the queries highlighted by the Guardian, concluding that “in many instances, the information was not inaccurate and was also supported by high quality websites.” This statement comes despite Google’s previous efforts, announced last year, to enhance Google Search for healthcare applications through improved overviews and health-focused AI models.

The British Liver Trust expressed a mixed reaction to Google’s actions. Vanessa Hebditch, the director of communications and policy at the trust, lauded the removal as “excellent news.” However, she also voiced a broader concern, stating that the focus on