Do you remember Google snippets? Have you noticed there are fewer of them lately? They are mostly replaced by Google’s ‘AI Overview’. Instead of text featured directly from a site, the AI Overview paraphrases it into something similar. I was quite thrilled when my most viewed blog post, about the themes of Roald Dahl, became a snippet a few years ago. I’m less thrilled to find that although my blog post is still the top result if you search ‘roald dahl themes’, the AI Overview has ‘written’ something very similar. It’s like someone copying your homework and trying to make it different enough for the teacher not to notice!

I am not at all keen on this feature. I’ve seen some false information in AI Overviews for various topics and it’s all very well to say in the small print that AI can make mistakes, it begs the question of why bother to have this feature if it can’t be trusted. It’s also treating non-factual pieces as information you should rely upon; I’m pleased if readers are finding my blog posts useful, but I’m not saying that it’s absolute truth, particularly with literary topics. Just one of many ways in which AI is being foisted upon us unnecessarily. Don’t get me started on all the other ways…