How to disable AI responses in Google Searches?

  • Thread starter Thread starter berkeman
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on dissatisfaction with Google's AI Search feature, which many users find intrusive and counterproductive. Participants express frustration over Google's shift to providing AI-generated summaries, which they believe reduces click-throughs to external sites and undermines the traditional search experience. Suggestions for alternatives include using websites that utilize Google’s search without AI features, such as Startpage, and various browser plugins designed to disable or hide AI overviews. Users note that while there are options to mitigate the AI feature, it remains a challenge to completely turn it off. Additionally, there is mention of differences in AI responses between Google Search and Google Gemini, highlighting the evolving nature of search technologies. Overall, the sentiment is that Google's AI summaries detract from user experience and the original purpose of search engines.
berkeman
Admin
Messages
69,098
Reaction score
23,977
This is not specific to PF, but came up in a PF thread:
berkeman said:
Yeah, I need to figure out if there's a way to turn off the "AI Search" feature in Google searches. That is really obnoxious. Off with a mission now...

I'm doing some searches, but so far Google is leading me in circles...

Any tips? Thanks.
 
Computer science news on Phys.org
Did you ask ChatGPT how to eviscerate its Google cousin?
 
  • Haha
  • Like
Likes OmCheeto, Rive, berkeman and 1 other person
It used to be that Google would provide search results, we’d go the various sites that came up in the results, we’d spend some time at those sites generating ad revenue for them… google would make money only from the related ads it placed on the search results page, and we aren’t staying long on that page. But when it provides an AI summary of the search results we’re more likely to stay on the Google page - it already has much of what we’d find by following the search result links.

So the AI summaries are Google’s way of capturing ad revenue that would otherwise be lost to click-throughs. Expecting Google to disable them is sort of like expecting a business to refer customers to their competitors.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes harborsparrow and phinds
Maybe there's a plugin or browser that can do it.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes Greg Bernhardt and mfb
berkeman said:
This is not specific to PF, but came up in a PF thread:


I'm doing some searches, but so far Google is leading me in circles...

Any tips? Thanks.
There's no obligation to read or click on the AI overview.
 
  • Like
  • Agree
Likes TensorCalculus, harborsparrow, jack action and 1 other person
I see many arguments denying that AI is actually intelligent. It seems to me that if these arguments are accepted then one would also conclude that 99% of the human race is not intelligent. It appears that this is not seen as a problem.
 
Last edited:
  • Sad
  • Like
Likes PeroK and gmax137
  • #10
Hornbein said:
I see many arguments denying that AI is actually intelligent. It seems to me that if these arguments are accepted then one would also conclude that 99% of the human race is not intelligent. It appears that this is not seen as a problem.
No one is intelligent all the time. It takes way too much time and caffeine to get my brain to turn on in the morning.
 
  • #11
  • #12
As PeroK said, just scroll on by. The AI overview is Google stealing information from other websites and not giving them traffic or even credit. And, it's often wrong to boot.
 
  • Like
Likes AlexB23 and Hornbein
  • #14
harborsparrow said:
And, it's often wrong to boot.
So turning it off with make the internet a completely accurate source of information. 🫤
 
  • #15
Algr said:
So turning it off with make the internet a completely accurate source of information. 🫤
...at least one very confidently presented layman opinion will be gone.

Ps.: by now, there are a growing number of browser extensions ready for the task. Example
 
  • #16
@berkeman you should be aware that the AI generated answers under regular Google search might be different if you pose the same question using Google Gemini. I don't know enough to know why there is a difference, but maybe under search, the AI is giving a summary based on the various sites through the query process, whereas in Google Gemini, the code assumes that the user wants self-contained answer.
 
  • #17
elias001 said:
@berkeman you should be aware that the AI generated answers under regular Google search might be different if you pose the same question using Google Gemini. I don't know enough to know why there is a difference, but maybe under search, the AI is giving a summary based on the various sites through the query process, whereas in Google Gemini, the code assumes that the user wants self-contained answer.
Gemini is just one layer that AI Overviews utilize.
 
  • #18
One more reason to use DuckDuckGo instead of Google, imo.
 

Similar threads

Replies
24
Views
2K
Replies
19
Views
4K
Replies
21
Views
3K
  • Sticky
Replies
0
Views
4K
Back
Top