Oof, I hope Google isn’t actually doing this
News reports indicate that Google is blocking AI Overview queries about Donald Trump’s mental state.
I was unable to test this out for myself; in fact, if I ask about the mental acuity of either former president Joe Biden or Trump, the AI Overview is not there. In fact, any question I ask about either U.S. presidents results in zero AI Overview results. However, an AI Overview appears if I ask about Justin Trudeau’s relationship status with Katy Perry.
The Verge, which first spotted the discrepancy, asked Google “does trump show signs of dementia,” and reportedly the AI Overview stated “An AI Overview is now available for this search.” While I can’t test this out, especially now that other publications are reporting on the block, in AI Mode, the same question only results in Google Search queries for Trump, but a summary is created for Biden.
A Google spokesperson told The Independent that “our systems automatically determine where an AI response will be useful, and it’s not always 100 percent consistent,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t show AI Overviews on every query and similarly in AI Mode, for some topics (like current events) we may show a list of links as the response.”
It’d be pretty sketchy if Google was intentionally hiding AI Overview searches about Trump, especially considering CEO Sundar Pichai was at the White House recently and thanked Trump for his leadership. 🤢
Google’s AI Overviews were introduced at the end of October 2024.
Source: The Verge, The Independent
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