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Google, the search engine, is experiencing a bit of a slump in 2025, with its market share dropping below 90% for most months, as reported by Statcounter. Despite this, Google still remains at the top of the search world and is focusing on solidifying its dominance with more AI Overviews.
What are Google AI Overviews? They are brief AI-written summaries that appear on top of some search results. The exact percentage of Google results that feature AI Overviews is a closely guarded secret, but research has shown that they were present on up to 18% of all queries in 2024.
In March 2025, Pew Research found that 18% of searches included AI Overviews, and by May 2025, SE Ranking observed a significant increase to almost 30% of Google searches. Despite the lack of transparency regarding the number of results with AI Overviews, Google claims that users are happier with their search results when using them.
However, the trust in AI Overviews is being questioned, especially when compared to articles that cite experts. With the rise of AI technology, the accuracy of AI Overviews has become crucial, as they are intended to provide factual and helpful information.
### Are Google AI Overviews Reliable?
According to a Google spokesperson, the majority of AI Overviews are highly factual and continuously improving in quality. However, some AI Overviews have been found to inaccurately estimate their own accuracy, claiming to be wrong up to 60% of the time.
In a test conducted by Mashable, only 1 in 5 AI Overviews returned an inaccurate or misleading answer. Despite occasional errors, Google AI Overviews are still striving to provide accurate information rooted in search results.
### When AI Overviews Miss the Mark
In cases where AI Overviews provide incorrect information, the consequences can be significant. One such example is the confusion surrounding the 16th Doctor in the popular show *Doctor Who*. The AI Overview confidently claimed that a character was not the 16th Doctor, despite conflicting information from official sources.
The discrepancies between AI Overviews and AI Mode have raised questions about the reliability and accuracy of AI-generated content. As technology continues to evolve, the need for precise and trustworthy information becomes increasingly important.
OK, good job AI Mode! Next question: why the heck didn’t you share any of this with your hardworking buddy in the next cubicle, AI Overviews?
Google declined to make a search executive available for interview (after doing so for our December 2024 checkup). But it’s hardly hallucination to suggest that an in-depth AI Mode query requires more processing power than an AI Overview. A Google spokesperson said that AI Mode is a cutting-edge tool based on the latest Gemini models, and that more of its results would wind up in AI Overviews over time.
Which is fair enough, but this does lead to the uncomfortable conclusion that Google is knowingly pushing less accurate results our way, while placing a more likely correct answer one click away.
AI Overview shoots for the moon, misses
So much for science fiction. Surely science fact is easier?
Not if the science fact question is “when is the next mission to the Moon,” as much of a gimme as that sounds. Google AI Overview claimed that NASA’s Artemis II mission is aiming to launch in September 2025, citing its source as a NASA press release from January 2024.
All well and good — except there was another NASA press release in December 2024, moving Artemis II’s target date to September 2026.
For a service that appears to be replacing a lot of news clicks, the AI Overview seems sometimes uninterested in things that are, y’know, new.
AI Overview doesn’t know DOGE
Another odd stuck-in-2024 moment came when I searched for “Elon Musk DOGE controversy.” This yielded an AI overview on … a lawsuit over alleged price manipulation of Dogecoin, which was settled in November 2024.
Wonder if Google users who type those keywords might be thinking of more recent DOGE-related events, perhaps involving the entire U.S. government rather than a memecoin?
It would be a DOGE-like level of craziness to suggest that these results were entirely representative, however.
In my tests, as in our previous two check-ups, most AI Overviews yielded decent summaries; as a newly-minted vegan I was pleased to see it knew about the existence of vegan pesto (replace the parmesan in regular pesto with nutritional yeast or cashew cheese), and I found novel suggestions for popping small dents out of my car trunk door (hair dryer followed by plunger).
So if it’s mostly useful, is it bad that AI Overview sometimes hallucinates? Your mileage may vary. But when I put it as a Google query, AI Overviews recused themselves. Instead, Google offered a featured snippet from Abeba Birhane, AI Accountability advisor to the Mozilla Foundation, responding in the negative.
“Google’s AI overviews hallucinate too much to be reliable,” Birhane wrote in 2024. “There is no clear evidence showing users even want this AI Overview.”
So whether AI Overviews or snippets are the future of Google search, it seems we can look forward to either one contradicting official Google statements.
Topics
Artificial Intelligence
Google
