It was a sunny afternoon in Mountain View, California on May 14, 2024, when Google changed the course of the Internet forever.
Google's Liz Reid, Vice President and Head of Google Search, took the stage a little over 40 minutes into the keynote presentation at Google I/O to unveil one of the most controversial search updates Google has ever launched.
"With each of these platform shifts, we haven't just adapted. We've expanded what's possible with Google search. And now, with generative AI, search will do more for you than you ever imagined."
Reid was referring to AI Overview, formerly "Search Generative Experience" or SGE, which launched in the U.S. that same day. At first glance, the feature seems fairly tame: a specialized version of Google's Gemini AI model generates summaries of search queries based on the top results for that query.
Unfortunately for Google (and the rest of us), AI Overview had a rocky start, to say the least. It was immediately caught generating odd, inaccurate, and unsafe summaries and pulling from strange sources like ancient Reddit threads.
The slew of fumbles shared across social media quickly turned AI Overview into a meme, but generative AI's role in the future of search is anything but a joke.
"Google will do the Googling for you" ... or maybe not
Reid kicked off her demo of AI Overviews by trying to reassure the audience: "Whatever's on your mind and whatever you need to get done, just ask and Google will do the Googling for you."
The idea of Google taking care of the trouble of Googling might sound nice, but it turns out Gemini isn't very good at taking over Search, or at least it wasn't at first. In the week after the feature's launch, users spotted a slew of strange AI-generated results and wasted no time sharing them all over the Internet.
The most infamous example suggested baking pizza with glue. Another recommended cleaning your washing machine with chlorine gas. Other results ranged from eating rocks to cooking spaghetti with gasoline.
Long story short, AI Overview went viral — for all the wrong reasons.
On May 30, 2024, just a couple of weeks after Google I/O, Liz Reid shared an update on AI Overview explaining that Google was working to address the problematic results and prevent more from popping up.
Reid clarified that some of the strangest results were emerging from "sarcastic or troll-y content from discussion forums," such as the glue pizza result. She also pointed out that some of the screenshots of nonsensical AI Overview results were connected to queries no one would reasonably ask to begin with, such as "How many rocks shall I eat."
After that initial turbulent start, Google manually removed some AI Overview results and added more guardrails to prevent other problematic summaries from appearing.
Even so, many users were still bothered by the new feature, especially after they realized there was no way to turn it off. At the time of writing, the only way to remove AI Overview from search results is through workarounds like browser extensions.
For better or worse, Google seems to be charging full-steam ahead on integrating generative AI into Search. The question, or "query" as Google might say, is whether or not generative AI is truly capable of replacing Search as we know it.
Can generative AI replace search engines?
Many of us (myself included) got a good laugh out of Google's unhinged AI-generated results. However, memes are all well and good but as the saying goes, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
Most people would have the common sense not to try many of the nonsense recommendations mentioned above, but there are still plenty of cases where AI Overview might generate something false, misleading, or dangerous that isn't immediately obvious as an error.
There are many potential pitfalls to replacing traditional search engines with generative AI. Perhaps the most worrying one is the fact that we haven't fixed AI's lack of accuracy yet.
Countless research studies have shown generative AI is riddled with bias and inaccuracies, although they are often not immediately obvious. When generative AI is advertised as a replacement for traditional search, many people may make the mistake of never double-checking the "information" they get from AI models like Gemini or ChatGPT.
AI is so good at replicating realistic language that it can make completely fabricated information seem legitimate. That's how we end up with situations like lawyers citing fictional legal cases generated by ChatGPT or AI-generated scientific research papers appearing on Google Scholar.
Is there potential for generative AI to replace web searching as we know it? Possibly, with much more development and far better accuracy guardrails. However, Google is not waiting to launch this technology. It's already here, for better or worse.
So, before searching with ChatGPT or blindly trusting AI Overviews, do your own Googling first.
If you're anything from an AI enthusiast to the average AI tinkerer (or simply seeking out some of the additional features offered through Windows Copilot+ PCs or Apple Intelligence on Macs), then you'll need a powerful and performative laptop to keep up to speed with your needs.
At Laptop Mag, we review laptops year-round to ensure we're giving you expert-backed and up-to-date recommendations on which notebook is right for you. When it comes to the best AI PC category, our top picks are the excellent Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) for Windows users and the impressive Apple Macbook Air M3 for those running macOS.
So, if you're shopping for a new laptop and looking to invest in an AI PC (or just a great laptop in general), check out our current top-tier picks below.
We love the MacBook Air 13 M3. Starting at just $1,099 (MSRP), with education pricing dropping to $999 (MSRP), the Air is a laptop we can recommend for just about any purpose. It's affordable, especially by Apple standards, and it features an excellent keyboard, fantastic performance, and outstanding endurance (over 15 hours of battery life), which makes it a great laptop for just about anyone's needs, especially those interested in getting to grips with all of the latest Apple Intelligence features.
The Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) has quickly become our favorite AI PC laptop of the year, offering all the hallmarks of a great buy, including exceptional performance and battery life. This laptop is one of the first to feature an Intel Core Ultra 200V series processor and at just $1,499 (MSRP), you get a fantastic balance of power, a stunning 14-inch OLED display, effortless multitasking, NPU-enhanced performance for AI tasks, and all of the additional Copilot+ features available with Windows 11.
