Google is looking to artificial intelligence to improve search results for users, but its latest iteration may be going a step too far. In what it is calling a “small and narrow experiment,” Google has been replacing original news headlines with AI-generated ones. It says this is designed to increase engagement and improve matching results to user queries, but some reports indicate that this is creating misleading headlines that don’t always accurately portray what the story is about.
Writers and publishers take care in crafting their headlines to make sure they engage readers while accurately representing the story. Some have noted that Google’s altered headlines are shortened and contain generic or misleading phrases that can give potential readers the wrong impression of a story. This could undermine the trust and credibility of a publication with its readers. There are also no labels or indicators in Google’s results that a story’s headline has been altered, making it more difficult to spot. Google has not disclosed the breadth of this test or if it is planning a more widespread rollout in the future.
