How to disable AI Overviews in Google Search on all devices
AI Overview, unveiled during Google's developer conference back in May, represents one of the biggest shake-ups to the company's trademark search engine in its history. It relies on AI to generate lengthy written responses, travel itineraries, recipes, meal plans, and more.
AI Overview functionality is now available in the UK, following early tests in the USA. If you've searched on Google using an iPhone or Android smartphone lately, you've probably seen the all-new AI Overviews summary that appears before any links to websites. It's the first significant shake-up to the core feature that built Google into a $2.1 trillion technology juggernaut in decades.
Google launched the tool publicly in the US in May but is now expanding it to the UK and five other countries – India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil – with local language support in each country. A small test of the technology was launched in the UK in April for a small sample of search queries, but the feature is now being rolled out much more widely.
Disabling AI Overviews on Mobile Devices
However, if you're not a fan of the AI Overviews and want to return to traditional Google Search, there is a way to disable the newly-launched Artificial Intelligence (AI) tricks.
Blocking AI Overviews on iPhone or Android phones isn't simple. If you're willing to change the habit of a lifetime, switch from Google to a new website called tenbluelinks.org, which has been created to rid AI Overviews from web searches. As the name suggests, it will revert searches to the traditional list of ten URLs.
Google lets you choose how much information is delivered in the AI Overviews that appear at the top of search results, toggling between Original and Simpler.
Android users will be able to banish AI Overviews with another workaround. Follow the below steps on your smartphone or tablet — but beware this won't work if you're using an iPhone:
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Once you've completed these five steps, you won't see AI Overviews when you start a search from the box on the Google homepage. It might still appear if you use the widget on the Android home screen or ask Google Assistant to launch a search for you.
Disabling AI Overviews on Desktop
If you rely on the Chrome web browser on your Windows or Mac desktop PC or laptop, there is another workaround that'll allow you to swerve the worst of the AI Overviews feature. Follow the steps below:
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Speaking about the roll-out of AI Overviews throughout the UK, Senior Director for Product Management at Google Search, Hema Budaraju said... (additional information about the roll-out).
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At the time, the tech giant said: “When AI Overviews get it wrong, it’s usually for other reasons: misinterpreting queries, misinterpreting a nuance of language on the web, or not having a lot of great information available – these are challenges that occur with other Search features too.”
On that issue, Ms Budaraju said Google would roll out Overviews gradually over several weeks to ensure it was working as intended.
