Google has had a change of heart about a medical advice feature of its search engine. Launched around a year ago, the AI-powered “What people suggest” panel appeared in search results when users conducted searches for health advice or assistance with illnesses.
There were instant criticisms of the safety of leaving AI to pull up such advice, but Google stuck to its guns for quite some time. Earlier this year, the company decided to pare back the feature, cutting back on advice for certain conditions. Now the company has killed off the feature completely.
Originally reported by the Guardian, Google has quietly dropped these suggestion panels completely. The Guardian’s report cites three people familiar with the situation as saying that the medical advice feature has been killed off, and this seems to be borne out in searches.
Google has also issued a statement after being contacted about the matter, but the company did not concede that the shelving of the feature was related to its safety or the quality of the advice it was providing. Rather, a spokesperson said that the cull is part of “broader simplification” of its search page.
When it launched, Google originally said of the feature:
Since AI Overviews launched last year, people are more satisfied with their search results, and they’re asking longer, more complex questions. And with recent health-focused advancements on Gemini models, we continue to further improve AI Overviews on health topics so they’re more relevant, comprehensive and continue to meet a high bar for clinical factuality.
We’ve also continued to provide knowledge panels on common health topics, like the flu or the common cold, and help people connect with reliable sources across the web. Now, using AI and our best-in-class quality and ranking systems, we’ve been able to expand these types of overviews to cover thousands more health topics. We’re also expanding to more countries and languages, including Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese, starting on mobile.
While people come to Search to find reliable medical information from experts, they also value hearing from others who have similar experiences. That’s why we’re making it even easier to find this type of information on Search with a new feature labeled “What People Suggest.” Using AI, we’re able to organize different perspectives from online discussions into easy-to-understand themes, helping you quickly grasp what people are saying. For example, a person dealing with arthritis might want to know how others with this condition exercise. With this feature, they can quickly uncover real insights from people who also have the condition, with links to click out and learn more.
Does the dropping of this feature seem like a good idea to you, or is it something that you will miss? Share you thoughts in the comments.
