Google AI Overviews put people at risk of harm with misleading health advice

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Fri 2 Jan 2026 12.00 EST
Last modified on Fri 2 Jan 2026 13.19 EST


People are being put at risk of harm by false and misleading health information in Google’s artificial intelligence summaries, a Guardian investigation has found. The company has said its AI Overviews, which use generative AI to provide snapshots of essential information about a topic or question, are “helpful” and “reliable”.

But some of the summaries, which appear at the top of search results, served up inaccurate health information and put people at risk of harm.

In one case that experts described as “really dangerous”, Google wrongly advised people with pancreatic cancer to avoid high-fat foods. Experts said this was the exact opposite of what should be recommended, and may increase the risk of patients dying from the disease.

In another “alarming” example, the company provided bogus information about crucial liver function tests, which could leave people with serious liver disease wrongly thinking they are healthy.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/02/google-ai-overviews-risk-harm-misleading-health-information

[highplainsdem]

1. The companies behind these chatbots have ALL been completely irresponsible in releasing and

promoting badly flawed generative AI tech that they know has a high error rate - and that they also know sounds authoritative enough that most people won't check what the chatbot tells them.