Google is going all in on AI.
After months of testing, Google has finally rolled out its AI-powered overview in SERPs, known as Search Generative Experiences (SGE). And it’s not going well.
it’s very impressive how the obnoxious Google AI thing at the top of all search results now is unconditionally wrong at interpreting what the question was while also delivering new, entirely wrong answers to the question it made up
— Lead Actor from Pixar’s Sodas (@ByYourLogic) May 15, 2024
What’s the issue with Google’s AI results in SERPs?
In the past week or so, searches for ‘how to turn off Google AI results’ and similar terms, have exploded.
Additionally, there has been an increase in alternative search engines, especially DuckDuckGo.
Not only that, someone has created a Chrome plugin to disable AI results in SERPs. While it is possible to *just* show web results, users have to navigate to ‘More’ and then select ‘Web’. For every single search. Not exactly intuitive.
One of my all-time fave SEOs, Lily Ray, has been following the impact of AI-generated results in SERPs for some time now. And now it’s out of Beta, we can see exactly how the general public feels about it, too.
As well as being frustrated that the feature is being forced upon them, and the time it takes to get an answer while the AI processes the search query, another issue is that much of the information it provides is incorrect.
perfect. ready to go. ship it out pic.twitter.com/TrQfVzD4iV
— ban goalies from hockey (@dril) May 5, 2024
This is especially alarming given that the result is health-related. I’m no doctor, but as far as I know, drinking your own piss won’t help pass kidney stones.
And it seems to even struggle with simple queries:
google’s AI is so smart, it’s honestly scary pic.twitter.com/7aa68Vo3dw
— Joe Kwaczala (@joekjoek) May 19, 2024
As for the impact on search engines, Lily explains that the AI will be easy to mess with, so expect inaccurate results to be a regular occurrence. And it’s a shame – for years, marketers have worked hard to research and publish high-quality content, only to see it be plagiarised, or replaced in the top spots by crappy AI-generated results.
This could be especially damaging and even dangerous when searching for queries that are political or highly emotive. AI bots can churn out thousands of pages of content designed to spread misinformation, which in theory, can then be used as a source for training AI models.
Even when the answers are right, there is no credit given to the source.
In this example, the AI-powered result is pulling information primarily from Reddit, and the post that the information was originally posted on is buried on page 2.
Google is an absolute shitshow.
Query:
“How Google is killing independent sites like ours”
That’s the exact title of an article that HouseFresh published 3 months ago.
The very first thing Google surfaces?
An “AI Overview” of a *Reddit post* discussing the article.
The… pic.twitter.com/8fRzsKOJBW
— Mike Futia (@mikefutia) May 18, 2024
Despite all the backlash, Google seems to be adamant that AI-powered results will be here to stay.
We’re only a week in, and for now, it’s hard to say what the long-term impact on SEO will be. Thankfully, we’ve not seen this rolled out in the UK, but it seems it’s only a matter of time before we have to endure it too.
If this sorta thing floats your boat, I highly recommend giving Lily a follow here and here.
