--- title: "Google’s Head of Search Tells Employees That AI Will Keep Making Absurd Mistakes, But They’re Gonna Keep Pushing It Out" description: "Google's search head doesn't want something as pesky as nonsense AI answers to keep the company from pushing out immature products. " date: "2024-06-15" modified: "2024-06-15" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-search-head-ai-mistakes" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" tags: - "ai search" - "Google" - "google search" - "the digest" --- # Google’s Head of Search Tells Employees That AI Will Keep Making Absurd Mistakes, But They’re Gonna Keep Pushing It Out ![Google's search head doesn't want something as pesky as nonsense AI answers to keep the company from pushing out immature products. ]() *STANFORD, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 03: Google and Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at Stanford University on April 03, 2024 in Stanford, California. Pichai spoke at Stanford’s first Business, Government, and Society Forum, which also had on the speaker list Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) \Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images\* ## Still Searching Google's search head doesn't want something as pesky as nonsense AI answers to keep the company from pushing out immature products. As [*CNBC* reports](), Google head of search Liz Reid urged employees during an all-hands meeting last week not to think of issues with AI in its core product as a bad thing. "It is important that we don’t hold back features just because there might be occasional problems," Reid told Google staffers, "but more as we find the problems, we address them." Promoted to the leadership role [back in March](), the veteran Googler joked to employees that they may "have seen stories about putting glue on pizza, eating rocks" — references, of course, to the [viral instances]() of Google's AI Overview feature [spitting out nonsense]() when asked simple queries. It wasn't the first time since taking the search reins that Reid has had to [address AI search's propensity]() for [bullshit](), and we'd bet money it won't be the last. "I don’t think we should take away from this that we shouldn’t take risks," Reid said during the meeting. "We should take them thoughtfully. We should act with urgency. When we find new problems, we should do the extensive testing but we won’t always find everything and that just means that we respond." ## Urgent Reminder Despite those rosy remarks, it's unclear how that urgency is being implemented. Though the company has reportedly [implemented patches and guardrails]() to fix the problems infecting its AI-generated search results, people were still getting told that they could make glue pizza [as recently as a few days ago]() (though a few passes today revealed that the company seems to have manually disabled AI responses for that specific query.) When reached by *CNBC*, a defensive Google spokesperson said the "vast majority" of AI Overview responses were accurate and that upon its own internal testing, the company found issues on "less than one in every 7 million unique queries on which AI Overviews appeared." "As we’ve said, we’re continuing to refine when and how we show AI Overviews so they’re as useful as possible," the spox continued, "including a number of technical updates to improve response quality." While it does appear that AI responses are populating for fewer queries than before, it's nevertheless quite bold to not only dismiss the evidence of AI Overview's immaturity as "occasional problems" and seemingly put the onus of beta testing it on the public and Google staff writ large. "Anytime you see problems, they can be small, they can be big — please file them," Reid urged her fellow Googlers. **More on Google comings and goings:** [*Google Hires Weight Loss Drug Exec With Zero Tech Experience as New CFO*. *Google Hires Weight Loss Drug Exec With Zero Tech Experience as New CFO*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()