If you are getting tired of having your Google searches including an AI response, then here is a workaround to get cleaner search results in Chrome.
Google announced a slew of new AI features at I/O 2024 last week, and among them was perhaps the biggest change to Google Search in the history of the company’s core product: AI Search Overview. Google is often considered the backbone of the modern Internet, the tool that tamed the wilderness of websites and ushered in a world where we could surface online information with ease. However, as companies rush to integrate generative AI into every level of their products, Google is pushing forward with putting generated summaries at the top of its search results. Not everyone wants an AI answering their queries, however.
There are many reasons you might want to disable Google’s AI Overviews in Search. Most importantly, large language models (LLMs) of the type Google is using are simply not reliable sources of information. They’re prone to what researchers call hallucinations, which is when the AI confidently states falsehoods. For example, Google might tell you that you should « drink at least 2 quarts (2 liters) of urine every 24 hours, » as happened to X user Keval Shah this week.
Additionally, if you’re searching for a specific webpage, you probably don’t want to scroll past a block of AI generated text that’s sitting in the way of that link.
