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Published at Jan 28, 2025 11:01 | Last updated at Jan 28, 2025 11:01 by Rochman Maarif
The eventualities are an inevitability that drives every business player to prepare scenarios and adapt. Watch the Anti-Trivial podcast featuring Mas Rochman, Bro Jimmy, and Pak Agus; a combination of a business practitioner, investor, and company leader, discussing how to enhance the foresight of business leaders in welcoming 2025. Don’t miss this special year-end edition of cmlabs Class, Episode 24 with title "New vs Conventional Search Engine. Prepare for the Eventualities!"
See Event DetailsEasy search, quick information. Browsing is now made easier with the implementation of AI search algorithms. Not limited to chatbots, various web platforms have developed generative AI to assist users in gaining information in the blink of an eye. One of the recent inventions that pique user's interest and, at times, incite confusion is Google AI Overview.
Still at its nascent stage, the Google SGE (Search Generative Experience) is bound to make mistakes. However, human users are not known to be the most generous responders to AI development as of late, with the threat of AI looming over humans’ livelihoods across various sectors.
As such, the Google AI overview highlights the recent AI fumbles in social media. Many users have expressed their frustration with the way it operates. To some, it seems clear that Google's AI overview represents AI’s incompetence in dealing with factual accuracy as humans know it.
But, we all know that AI search algorithms don't start and end with Google SGE. As it turns out, several chatbots provide more cohesive information delivery compared to Google's Generative AI. Before we get to that point, let’s learn a few things about Google's AI overview and its naivety when dealing with humans’s wits below!
Instead of scrolling from one page to another, Google gives you a quick web searching experience through AI Overview. Rest assured, the SGE only works when users allow it. The feature can be turned off and on, making it optional rather than an obligatory or forceful AI application for all.
The new Google feature is triggered when you enter a query. However, the generative responses only appear when Google systems determine them to be especially helpful. Not only an overview, Google attaches links to resources that support the information presented. Such a feature helps users to explore more about the topic and find useful content from various ranges of websites Google deems trustworthy.
Google AI Overview only shows relevant links that support the results. The systems work automatically to decide which links appear on the feature. In this case, Google recommended SEO practitioners and content creators follow the guidance in Google Search Essentials.
It’s safe to say that Google AI Overview helps simplify the search experience. For mothers who want to explore new kitchen menus or employees who urgently need to catch flights early in the morning, the feature can shorten the web exploration in one simple click.
For example, someone needs to go to the Soekarno Hatta airport immediately. He searched for the fastest route to the airport on Google. This is what the result shows in Indonesian:
The AI Overview summarizes the content and attaches a link to the resource. Users who activate the generative response on their Chrome can see such a result on their device.
Another example of Google SGE’s quick thinking is giving a quick summary or steps to a medical issue. In this case, we use the query “how to treat appendicitis” in Indonesian. The result shows a lot more information since it’s a YMYL topic. Along with attaching the links to the resources, the AI Overview gives a disclaimer at the bottom, stating, “This is for informational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional. Generative AI is experimental.”
Every creation surely has its flaws, especially when it concerns a generative technology used in Google AI Overview. The algorithm uses the method of understanding natural language queries. It helps the systems evaluate millions of data and documents indexed on Google. However, the technology still struggles against the innate curiosity of human nature.
The generative systems understand queries word by word in their most literal sense. Hence, searching for daily task-related information about generally conceived concepts is a piece of cake to them. What they don’t count on is the human’s willingness to question new technologies.
Mario Livio, in his book, 'Why? What Makes Us Curious’, stated that humans tend to get curious when they feel that something surprises them or when they don’t quite agree with unfamiliar things. To humans, something new is worth anticipating, exploring, and challenging.
So, when the Google AI Overview arrives, the one thing human users do is challenge its competency. As an Indonesian user, I’m using an Indonesian query to search for the answer to the question “does dragon reproduce?" Google AI overview captures our query and presents me with befuddling information.
AI overview says that “a flying dragon reproduces by mating, laying eggs, and guarding eggs”. Furthermore, the information shows that the procedure involves the procedure in detail, such as the female dragon making a tiny hole in the ground to lay eggs and cover it back for 24 hours.
While the information is very elaborate, it doesn’t make sense to our perceived reality. In the world we live in, there is no such living creature named a dragon. Dragons have always been creatures of myth and are commonly found in sci-fi media. AI overview fails to correctly deliver information commonly known by humans.
In addition, the featured snippet shows misleading information regarding dragon fruit instead of a dragon, the animal that we intend to search for. Google search results in Indonesian fail to understand the query intended to seek correct information about the way mystical dragons reproduce.
So, what about AI overview in English? Using the query with the same search intent,wedid a test, as seen in the screenshot below.
Entering “how do dragons reproduce” turns out to produce a similar result with a few tweaks. The AI overview shows the dragon's reproduction method, which doesn’t make sense in real life. Additionally, the overview attaches National Geographic as source. However, the articles cited as references talk aboutthe Komodo Dragon instead of the mythical creature as the search query intended.
On the other hand, the featured snippet shows information from Fandom. It’s a website commonly known for curating fictional terms in any form of media, including but not limited to movies, TV series, books, games, and many others. Though it’s close to the perceived notion of a dragon as a mythical creature, the snippet doesn’t give a disclaimer that the information is based on fictional world-building and not real life.
In this mini research, we take note of the nature of the AI search algorithm and its application. AI overview and chatbot's intentions are to help human users achieve web searching purposes in a short time instead of going through an entire web page to get what they’re looking for. Both use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to comprehend human speech in the forms of text and audio.
Since Google AI Overview fails to understand the prompt we use, we intend to try out the same prompt or query on chatbots. This time, we used Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude. Each is designed in a different manner from the AI Overview, though it similarly relies on NLP. Here are the results on each platform:
First, we entered the query “apakah naga berkembang biak?” in the search box. Although Google Gemini and Google SGE gather information from the same large amount of data compiled by Google, the result turns out differently.
Google Gemini highlights the fact that dragons are mythical creatures and that they cannot reproduce like living creatures as humans know. Furthermore, it shows information related to the possibility of dragons reproducing in fictional stories and gives a disclaimer that they’re imaginative creatures.
The result is also similar in English. Using the query “how do dragons reproduce?" we get a new variation of the text-generated answer. It also has a firm statement that dragons are imaginary creatures and that there’s no scientific consensus to back up how they reproduce as they don’t exist in real life. The answers provided are based on popular depictions in fantasy and folklore media.
When entering the prompt in ChatGPT, the information displayed includes a disclaimer that dragons are fictional creatures with the capability to reproduce. It then further shows how each culture has different interpretations of dragons.
The English version of the query shows a similar result with added information on the reproduction method in an elaborate manner. In fairness, ChatGPT shows more accuracy when interpreting the query in each language.
In Indonesian, the query incites a yes/no answer. ChatGPT shows it while Google Gemini doesn’t. However, the English query asks for the dragon’s reproduction method, and it abides by the prompt and includes the main interpretations of dragon reproduction methods commonly found in fantasy media.
Moving on to Microsoft Copilot, the Indonesian query shows a similar result, much like ChatGPT. It’s short and to the point, just as the prompt asks. The result briefly explains that dragons are depicted as fictional creatures that fly and lay eggs like real-life reptiles that inspire their creation. Additionally, it offers prompt options to continue further with the exploration about dragons in mythology.
Similarly to ChatGPT, Copilot can accurately answer the query. It gives a short answer while including all the important things to know about dragons in a mythical context and the common method of reproduction found in mythical stories or folktales.
On the other hand, the prompt “how do dragons reproduce?” generates a concise yet elaborate answer that underlines the mythical nature of dragons. Furthermore, users can explore depictions of dragons in mythical settings using the options of prompts at the bottom of the search result.
The answer generated from the same prompt on Claude is basically similar to the previous chatbots. It mentions that the dragon as a mythical creature cannot scientifically be proven to reproduce in real life. However, it states that dragons in fictional settings can reproduce using several methods as depicted in fantasy media.
The English prompt generates similar results with more elaborate information considering the nature of the query. It’s consistent with results on different platforms that show added details on each dragon’s reproduction method in fictional settings.
The comparison shows the lack of Google SGE’s ability to interpret and comprehend queries beyond literal meaning and real-world applications. Compared to a few chatbots selected above, Google AI Overview leaves out the most important information of all: dragons are not real creatures.
At its nascent stage, errors are bound to happen, and there will always be human users who question the relevance of AI search algorithms. Though the development is ongoing, Google SGE’s failure to answer human curiosity may lead to bigger public scrutiny and a growing sense of distrust in the technology.
However, AI overview can benefit users in common daily activities with no special verification from experts. As long as the information you seek is a day-to-day practice, you may find the AI Overview helpful for providing you with a shortcut to the answer you’re looking for.
Nevertheless, it’s important to not rely on AI 100%. As a wise user, you can always recheck the AI-generated answer by reading expertly reviewed articles. After all, providing trustworthy information is something Google considers when ranking articles on SERP.
So, how do you get an article containing accurate, much-needed information, but also optimized? We provide you with a SEOlution called cmlabs Writing Services. Our effective SEO strategies specialized for each one of specific business sectors can help drive your site’s quality as well as visibility up. Let’s work with cmlabs to achieve better performance online!
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