An investigation has found that people are being put at risk of harm by false and misleading health information on Google's artificial intelligence (AI) summaries.
The company has said its AI overviews, which use generative AI to provide snapshots of essential information about a topic or question, are helpful and reliable.
The investigation revealed that some of the summaries, which appear at the top of search results, served up inaccurate health information and put people at risk of harm.
Google searches for answers about women's cancer tests provided completely wrong information, which experts said could result in people dismissing genuine symptoms.
A Google spokesperson said many of the health examples shared with them were incomplete screenshots, but from what they could assess, they linked to well-known reputable sources and recommended seeking out expert advice.
In November last year, a study found AI chatbots across a range of platforms gave inaccurate financial advice, while similar concerns have been raised about summaries of news stories.
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