Google’s AI overviews reinforce some conspiracy theories – new research

Walter Geiersperger/Getty Images Imagine overhearing on a bus that the city council plans to implement new restrictions under an urban planning program called “15-minute cities”.

Curious, you search the term on Google.

It’s likely that at the top of the results page, an AI-generated text summarising the search results will appear.

This text synthesises content from various webpages that answer specific search queries .

They are increasingly appearing not only in Google, but also in other search engines, and users are now likely to stop reading the search results page beyond this AI-generated text.

But what if the AI-generated answer – the only search result users may see – confidently makes misleading or incorrect claims? Or reinforces conspiratorial ideas suggested by pro-conspiracy search terms? Our new research , published in the journal Media International Australia, shows this is sometimes true of Google’s AI-generated overviews.

It highlights that stronger guardrails are needed to tackle the spread of dangerous conspiracy theories.

Focusing on two conspiracies We focused on two conspiracy theories: chemtrails and 15-minute cities.

“Chemtrails” is a conspiracy theory that has been around since the 1990s.

Its believers mainly perceive the condensation trails left behind aircraft as large-scale weather or climate modification programs.

Researchers called out Google for giving visibility to conspiratorial beliefs around chemtrails back in 2015.

In response, the company demoted problematic search results.

Conspiracy theories surrounding 15-minute cities are relatively younger.

The term was originally coined to represent an efficient urban planning model.