AI overviews are now at the core of Google’s search interface. Discover the main characteristics of AI overviews, its advantages over SGE, and user feedback.

A feature of Google Search called Google AI Overviews shows summaries and insights produced by AI at the top of search results. Gemini, Google’s proprietary artificial intelligence model, powers it, and its goal is to assist users in finding precise and pertinent information from a range of web sources rapidly.

Understanding Google AI Overviews

Google AI Overviews was formerly a component of SGE, a Google Search tool that gave consumers access to Google’s generative AI technology for queries involving text and images. Since then, this has developed into a larger experiment that covers more ground in terms of Google’s generative AI capabilities for search.

The term “overviews” refers to the snapshot-style responses that Google AI Overviews (a software giant’s proprietary large language model) provides to users’ search queries. Gemini’s integration with Google’s main site ranking algorithm allows AI Overviews to search and retrieve pertinent data from Google’s index.

The system is designed to make it easier for users to find the information they need quickly without having to scour through multiple sources. For example, if you’re looking for information on climate change, AI Overviews can provide a summarized response with key facts and statistics, along with links for further reading. In doing so, AI Overviews reduces the effort users need to put into searching for information by doing all the legwork for them — or so the theory goes.

Key features of Google AI Overviews

Google AI Overviews can handle complex, multi-part user queries by linking together related information and provide more nuanced responses as a result. For example, you could search “Show me the best gyms within 30 minutes’ drive with no joining fees,” and AI Overviews will show you nearby gyms, their distance from you and any relevant sign-up offers

Planning and brainstorming aids

By compiling pertinent data and resources, AI Overviews go beyond simple question-answering to assist users in organizing their day or coming up with project ideas. If you search for something like “Create a five-day high protein meal plan that’s easy to prepare,” AI Overviews will compile recipes from websites all over the internet to help you get started. From there, you can personalize your responses—for example, by requesting vegetarian substitutes—and add the required products to your shopping list.

Users will be able to use AI Overviews for travel planning as of this summer. During Google I/O, Sissie Hsiao, general manager for Gemini experiences and vice president at Google, demonstrated this.

During a demo, Hsiao gave the example prompt: “My family and I are going to Miami for Labor Day. My son loves art, and my husband really wants fresh seafood. Can you pull my flight and hotel information from Gmail and help me plan the weekend?” Gemini will then pull together information from Maps, Search and Gmail to provide a customized itinerary, factoring in things like flight schedules and the distance of the hotel from suitable nearby dinner spots.

Google plans to add more customization options capabilities later in the year, including more comprehensive recommendations for less specific prompts. For instance, “Anniversary celebration dinner places Dallas” might highlight venues with more romantic ambience or — weather-permitting — spots with rooftop dining.

Video-based search

In the future, users will be able to record a video, ask a question about it, and receive assistance from AI Overviews since they will be able to comprehend and reply to questions provided in video format. According to Google, this will make it simpler to identify solutions to issues without having to put out lengthy language explanations.

How to access, customize or disable AI Overviews

To access AI Overviews, just perform a regular search on Google. The AI-generated overview will show up at the top of the search results if it’s relevant to your query, much like a knowledge panel.

There’s currently no default option to disable AI Overviews entirely. A Google support page notes, “AI Overviews are part of Google Search like other features, such as knowledge panels, and can’t be turned off.” In which case, the best you can do is ignore them and focus on the traditional search results instead. If you prefer the usual list of links, you can switch to the Web tab at the top of the Google Search results page. Alternatively, you can go down the custom web extension route, in which case we advise caution.

How to access, customize or disable AI Overviews

The rollout of Google AI Overviews hasn’t been smooth sailing. In late May, Google was prompted to revisit the feature after it threw out some questionable results. Google attributed the issues to its AI model misunderstanding queries or nuances in language, as well as gaps in available quality information such as advice on how many rocks one should each per day. (Note: Kafig Tech strongly advises against eating rocks.)

In response, Liz Reid, head of Google Search, said the company would “keep improving when and how we show AI Overviews and strengthening our protections, including for edge cases.” Among the improvements include refining AI Overviews to better interpret satirical content and nonsensical queries and adding restrictions to prevent the AI from triggering in situations where it can’t provide useful information.