When Google rolled out AI Overviews, the idea made sense: give people quick, helpful summaries instead of ten blue links. And then the system promptly suggested things like putting glue on pizza and eating rocks for nutrients. A bold vision – not the one Google had in mind, but memorable nonetheless.
This stumble highlights an uncomfortable truth: generative AI is confident long before it’s competent. It doesn’t “know” things – it predicts them. And sometimes those predictions sound like a hallucinating sous-chef trying its best.
But beneath the humor is a real challenge. Search is one of the most trusted interfaces in modern life. When it gets weird, people get nervous. Google wants to transform search without breaking the quiet contract users have relied on for 20 years: “Just tell me the answer and don’t make it weird.”
If AI rewrites the rules of search, how do we rebuild trust along the way? And what should “helpful” look like when the line between knowledge and guesswork gets blurry?
Related article: Washington Post
