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Google AI is once again being found out for its content process which is relying on YouTube for information, according to a study.
Google’s AI answers for health queries are just YouTube content?
Google has been on a launch spree with new AI features rolling out almost every other day. The company wants to tap its vast Gemini resource pool to help people across segments which includes health as well. But a new study suggests the AI model could be relying on other sources for its information that are passed on to the user.
Google AI seems to be using a lot of information sourced from YouTube videos and this seems specifically related to the health data that is provided by its AI model to give you the answers.
The report by The Guardian claims Google’s AI Overviews is likely to give you summarised answers sourced from YouTube rather than an actual website which caters to medical queries.
More AI Concerns For Google
AI Overviews has been in the news before and it wasn’t for the right reasons either. But with the push for medical support through AI, relying on videos that are not vetted, to give you the answers, is probably not the right way to disseminate information either.
The report has quoted a study which has analysed over 50,000 responses for health questions and they claim to have found around 4.43 percent of these answers citing YouTube as its source in AI Overviews. The worrying part is that the AI model did not have even one credible medical entity offering responses for its feature.
Inviting Trouble
The study also questions Google’s own claim about AI Overviews offering responses based on authentic health institutions. The fact that you have many influencers or so-called health experts offering advice on the streaming platform, makes the whole AI use for health queries rather troubling.
That’s not all, YouTube can become an easy source for videos that are either generated using AI tools (called AI slop) or spread misinformation without being verified by anybody. The whole “YouTube owned by Google” element is also hard to ignore in such cases, and study is quick to highlight the ill effects of these synergies, and how it impacts the people who rely on AI tools for useful tips and information through search.
OpenAI is also looking to enter the health space and it also needs similar vetting process to avoid such lapses. This is not the first time AI overview has been found making its own rules, and we really hope Google and other tech giants fix these issues before something catastrophic happens.
California, USA
January 26, 2026, 16:18 IST
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