Google is using AI to display crowdsourced medical information
Since the start of March, Google has been aggressively expanding the availability of AI Overviews, dropping the requirement that you need to be logged into your Google account to access the feature. Now the company is bringing yet another AI tool to Search. The next time you go online to find medical information on your phone, you may see a new "What People Suggest" panel at the top of Google.
Using AI, the feature will organize "different perspectives from online discussions into easy-to-understand themes," explains Google. For instance, say you or one of your family members suffers from arthritis, the panel will curate "real insights from people who also have the condition," with links so you can dig deeper. The feature is currently only available on mobile devices in the US.
Google doesn't say how it plans to prevent the panel from surfacing misinformation. Instead, it mentions that it has worked to improve AI Overviews related to health topics so they "continue to meet a high bar for clinical factuality." However, even after Google implemented additional safeguards to prevent AI Overviews from generating inaccurate summaries, and began using Gemini 2.0 to tackle more complicated questions, the feature can still return bizarre answers. For instance, an AI Overview recently told my colleague Kris Holt that the first day Canadians can start contributing toward their RRSP for 2026 starts on March 61.
At the same event where Google debuted the What People Suggest panel, the company had other health-related announcements. The search giant said it was releasing a series of new Medical Records APIs through its Health Connect platform. With the update, Google says it will be easier to connect your health data with data from your doctor's office. Google also provided an update on the Pixel Watch 3's loss of pulse detection feature. After announcing it was coming soon with the latest Pixel feature drop, Google now says it will roll out at end of the month.
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