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Following an investigation by the Guardian<\/a> that found Google AI Overviews offering misleading information in response to certain health-related queries, the company appears to have removed the AI Overviews for some of those queries.<\/p>\n For example, the Guardian initially reported that when users asked \u201cwhat is the normal range for liver blood tests,\u201d they would be presented with numbers that did not account for factors such as nationality, sex, ethnicity, or age, potentially leading them to think their results were healthy when they were not.<\/p>\n Now, the Guardian says AI Overviews have been removed<\/a> from the results for \u201cwhat is the normal range for liver blood tests\u201d and \u201cwhat is the normal range for liver function tests.\u201d However, it found that variations on those queries, such as \u201clft reference range\u201d or \u201clft test reference range,\u201d could still lead to AI-generated summaries.<\/p>\n When I tried those queries this morning \u2014 several hours after the Guardian published its story \u2014 none of them resulted in seeing AI Overviews, though Google still gave me the option to ask the same query in AI Mode. In several cases, the top result was actually the Guardian article about the removal.<\/p>\n A Google spokesperson told the Guardian that the company does not \u201ccomment on individual removals within Search,\u201d but that it works to \u201cmake broad improvements.\u201d The spokesperson also said that an internal team of clinicians reviewed the queries highlighted by the Guardian and found \u201cin many instances, the information was not inaccurate and was also supported by high quality websites.\u201d<\/p>\n TechCrunch has reached out to Google for additional comment. Last year, the company announced new features aimed at improving Google Search for healthcare use cases<\/a>, including improved overviews and health-focused AI models.<\/p>\n Vanessa Hebditch, the director of communications and policy at the British Liver Trust, told the Guardian that the removal is \u201cexcellent news,\u201d but added, \u201cOur bigger concern with all this is that it is nit-picking a single search result and Google can just shut off the AI Overviews for that but it\u2019s not tackling the bigger issue of AI Overviews for health.\u201d<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span>
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n