According to Ahrefs Blog, just a few months ago, in August, something new started popping up at the top of all Google searches, whether people were signed in or not. Instead of the regular highlighted quote from an article, an AI Overview made up of information from compiled sources would use artificial intelligence to quickly answer whatever question is searched.
According to the Google help center, the AI overview “takes the work out of searching by providing an AI-generated snapshot with key information and links to dig deeper.”
However, Susan Augustine, a librarian at the Pritzker Traubert Family Library, disagrees when it comes to students.
“It keeps students from doing the work that is going to help them learn how to do things, learn how to think and learn how to write,” she said.
Because of AI’s general bad reputation and AI Overviews often providing nonspecific and unclear answers, many teachers think it can be used as a shortcut for students while researching.
Danielle Jones, an English teacher, shares this sentiment.
“I’m not necessarily totally against it,” she said, “but I feel like you should know how to research without it before even remotely approaching Google AI review or ChatGPT.”
Sophomore Saanika Dutta opted for the trial version of AI Overview back in May 2024. Due to having the AI Overview feature for so long, Saanika has also noticed its many mistakes.
“I will say that I’m very lucky that AI overview came out right now and not when I was learning all those skills about research,” Saanika said.
“There have been some times, especially with yes or no questions, sometimes it’s like, ‘Yes, this answer is right,’ but then the reasoning it gives me tells me that the answer is not right,” Saanika said.
Some students also share this sentiment when it comes to the overview, especially when comparing it to how Google used to be. Sophomore Ledya Wreden doesn’t like the fact that, without an outside website, Google AI Overview cannot be removed.
“I would at the least just make it optional because me personally, I would prefer not having it and rather having a snippet of an article like they used to,” Ledya said.
