Google Removes AI Overviews for Liver Test Queries, But Fixes the Wrong Problem

Google’s AI Overviews now vanish for some health queries—just as critics warn this half-solved problem is only the beginning.

The Guardian found Google AI Overviews initially provided incomplete liver test range information, omitting factors like nationality, sex, and age.

AI Overviews have been removed for queries such as 'what is the normal range for liver blood tests,' but similar phrasings like 'lft reference range' still display AI-generated summaries.

Vanessa Hebditch, director of communications and policy at the British Liver Trust, said:

"Our bigger concern with all this is that it is nit-picking a single search result and Google can just shut off the AI Overviews for that but it’s not tackling the bigger issue of AI Overviews for health,"

Google's spokesperson stated, "we work to make broad improvements," and an internal team of clinicians reviewed the queries, finding "in many instances, the information was not inaccurate and was also supported by high quality websites."

The company introduced health-focused AI models in 2023 but has not fully addressed systemic risks in AI Overviews for healthcare queries.