Researchers who tested Google Search's AI Overview and AI Mode concluded in a new report that neither product is safe for kids or teens to use. Google told Mashable in a statement that the research is flawed and not reflective of how people interact with its search products.Between May and July of this year, Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute tested how AI Overview and AI Mode performed on 2,600 interactions. Its researchers also evaluated how the products handled several "red line" topics, including suicide and self harm, child sexual exploitation, and psychosis.
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"Our tests found that both AI Overview and AI Mode failed kids in crisis, including missing clear signs of suicidal ideation, reinforcing signs of psychosis and mania, validating disordered eating including purging, and celebrating cannabis use," the report's authors wrote. Additionally, AI Mode completed homework problems and AI Overview frequently provided substantially different answers to the same history questions.Recommendations for parents and educatorsCommon Sense Media made significant recommendations based on the results. Foremost, schools and families should have the option to disable AI Overview and AI Mode, the researchers said. Elementary school teachers should also direct students away from Google AI search altogether. Instead, they should rely on library databases or other search tools. Families should consider a search engine that doesn't provide AI answers, too.Google, which reviewed the report prior to its publication, said that it could not verify or reproduce many of the report's findings. Instead, Google claimed its own testing yielded higher quality responses for the same queries used by the testers."Our AI Search features are an incredibly useful way for kids and teens to learn, explore and make sense of information and the world," Google said in a statement to Mashable. "This report tests a narrow set of ambiguous and contrived queries that don’t reflect how people use Search and aren't an effective way to measure product safety and helpfulness."Google AI search risksGeoffrey A. Fowler, head of public engagement at Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute, told Mashable that leaving AI Overview and AI Mode off by default for tweens and teens is a clear solution. "We don't think that's a revolutionary stance," Fowler said. Elsewhere in the world, AI Overview and AI Mode are disabled for minors, he added. Google told Mashable that parents can block access to search on Android devices and the Chrome browser via parental controls. Parents must manually add Google.com as a blocked site in Google Chrome and Web settings for this to work on a Chromebook.Google, however, does limit minor access to its AI chatbot Gemini. Common Sense Media previously deemed Gemini as "high risk" for kids and teens. AI Overview and AI Mode are an "unacceptable risk," according to the group's latest research. Unless Google restricts AI Overview and AI Mode for U.S. minors, parents and educators will shoulder the burden of managing both products' various risks, Fowler said.
