Google Expands AI Briefing to New Countries

Google rolled out AI Overviews — an AI-generated summary displayed at the top of search results pages before traditional links — to all US users in May after a year of limited testing.

However, the feature has been widely criticized after its false answers went viral on the internet, such as a pizza recipe listing glue as an ingredient and an answer claiming former US President Barack Obama was a Muslim.

Google acknowledged the “misleading and bizarre summaries” and announced product updates in a blog post in late May. These updates include limits on queries that will display AI answers and restrictions on using user-generated content from sites like Reddit as a source.

“I have enough evidence to confirm that quality is gradually improving,” said Hema Budaraju, senior product manager at Google.

She also said Google's internal data showed that users with access to the feature reported higher satisfaction and searched for longer, more specific queries than those who didn't use the feature.

AI Overviews will soon be available in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, and the UK, with local languages like Portuguese and Hindi.

Google is also adding more links to the feature. Websites will appear on the right side of AI-generated answers.

The company is also internally testing another update that will add direct links to the summary content, as part of an effort to “prioritize approaches that drive traffic to relevant sites.”

The updates come amid concerns from the media industry for more than a year that AI-generated search could drive traffic to their sites. Budaraju said the new update will have “three-pronged” benefits for Google, users and publishers.

Hong Hanh (according to Reuters)