Google is finally cutting its AI medical advice feature

Google has been hard-pushing its AI overview feature since early 2024, even going so far as to replace the longstanding word definitions feature with AI-generated summaries. However, Google is rolling back one AI Overview feature, which hasn't sat well with Google users.

Google's AI Medical Advice summarization tool is no more

Google is now stepping back from its controversial AI search feature that would attempt to gather medical advice from across the web. Essentially, if you have searched for your symptoms recently (because let's be honest, who hasn't done that before), you may have noticed a new test widget that collects health tips from both forums and social media. Well, that experiment is now over.

According to The Guardian, Google has quietly ended the "What People Suggest" feature, which was an AI search tool that showed health tips and processes from everyday users across the internet.

As Engadget noted, the idea seemed useful at first, but it raised the question of whether a search engine should summarize medical advice from total strangers.

The feature aimed to provide quick, easy-to-read insights from people with similar health issues—which could be beneficial for those with less common medical issues—but these insights came from online user discussions, which was a bit of a problem.

Recently, Google has been under increasing pressure over how its AI system handles medical information. Earlier investigations have found that AI Overviews sometimes deliver misleading or even risky health advice. In some cases, the suggestions provided were missing key context or were contradicting established medical recommendations. Even if the information is correct, critics note that it could still be risky. One thing that AI still doesn't always understand is that contextual information, such as age, medical history, and other details, matters when it comes to health advice.

To add to that, disclaimers warning users to consult medical professionals weren't always front and center, which, to some, made the AI responses feel more authoritative than they should have.

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Google has stated that the removal wasn't about the feature's accuracy, but rather as part of a broader effort to simplify the search experience.

For now, AI will no longer summarize crowd-sourced medical advice within Google Search. You can still look for it yourself and track down all of the personal stories, but it will be at your own discretion.