Why Google’s AI Overviews Are Frustrating Users and a Hack to Avoid Them

After Google launched AI Overviews in May of this year, the company quickly made headlines for erroneous search results suggesting that users eat rocks or add glue to pizza. The feature uses artificial intelligence to summarize search results in an effort to answer the question it believes users are seeking to answer with their searches.

These often wildly incorrect AI summaries led many users to wonder how to turn off AI Overview in Google search results. Several fixes are available, both temporary and permanent.

How to Remove AI Overview from Individual Google Searches

If you sometimes refer to AI Overviews but want to eliminate them from showing up when you enter certain queries, there are three quick solutions for this artificial intelligence dilemma:

Type “-AI” in the search bar after your other search terms, then hit the enter button. Your search results will display without the AI Overview at the top.

Add the Google Search operator code “&udm=14” to the end of the search results page URL, then reload the page.

Click the “Web” tab located directly below the search bar at the top of the search engine results page. This will take you to a more tailored results page that removes the AI overviews from the top and only displays web results.

How to Remove AI Overview from All Google Searches

While the three hacks above work in a pinch, it can be tedious to type in “-AI” or “&udm=14” or click the Web tab for every single search. However, there’s a way to set up a custom Google Search engine that will permanently stop artificial intelligence summaries from showing up for all future searches.

To set up a custom search engine, you must have a Google account and be logged into the Google Chrome browser.

Click on the column of three upright dots in the top right corner of your browser and select Settings > Search Engine > Manage Search Engines and Site Search > Site Search.

Click “Add” to create a new search shortcut and give it a name, such as “AI free search.”

In the URL field, paste the following text: {google:baseURL}search?q=%s&udm=14.

When it appears in the list, click the three buttons on the right and select the “Make default” option.

The “&udm=14” will now be applied to every Google search moving forward, eliminating the AI Overview from your Google Search results page.

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