With Biden, AI Mode will provide a summarized answer.
  • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
    661·
    4 months ago

    Forget the spokesperson, just ask Google AI directly:

    AI on Google Search, including the AI Overviews in search, does not provide summaries on topics involving Donald Trump and dementia. This is due to risk aversion, sensitivity to political topics, and recent legal challenges. Instead, these searches return a list of traditional web links.

    Reasons for the lack of response

    • Risk of misinformation: AI-generated conclusions about a public figure’s health could spread misinformation. The mental acuity of Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, the oldest presidents in U.S. history, is a topic of public discussion.
    • Avoiding political sensitivity: AI models often have restrictions on sensitive or controversial topics to avoid biased responses. Google and other tech companies are cautious about how their AI products respond to election-related or partisan queries.
    • Legal history with Trump: Google’s handling of Trump-related content may be influenced by recent legal and political issues. In 2025, Google paid a $24.5 million settlement in a lawsuit related to the suspension of Trump’s YouTube account.
    • Inconsistent application of AI summaries: Some users report that searches about other politicians, like Barack Obama or Joe Biden, may return an AI-generated response, though this varies. This inconsistency has led to criticism that the AI applies selective censorship.

    Google’s statement A Google spokesperson stated that AI Overview and AI Mode do not always show answers to all queries, especially sensitive or complex ones. The company suggests that users rely on traditional search results in such cases.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
      12·
      4 months ago

      Yeah, we consistently give the wrong answer on any divisive and sensitive topic, but THIS particular issue we will skip because we wouldn’t want somebody to feel like we don’t have our tongue solidly lodged up their ass

      • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
        4·
        4 months ago

        Yeah, it’s insanely inept. They could have restricted the AI from answering “any question about a public figure and dementia” or even “the health information about a politician” or whatever if they were genuinely concerned. But they blocked only specifically Trump and dementia? It’s almost intentionally obvious.

    • CosmicTurtle0 [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      4 months ago

      Instead, these searches return a list of traditional web links.

      “Oh…oh okay. So you know what that is. Why are unable to provide traditional web links for ALL my searches? Because, I’m gonna be honest with you Google. I never asked for you to ‘summarize’ my web results and the fact that you can turn it off at your discretion tells me that you could turn it off for everyone.”

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
    35·
    4 months ago

    Wtf, confirmed. Ask about any person, any president on if they have dementia or not and it’ll answer

    Ask about trump and it refused to interact, just dumps a search results window with funnily enough the first result being a page about how Google is censoring this

    • WIZARD POPE💫@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      4 months ago

      The most tremendous dementia they have seen. The greatest people have looked at me and said it’s the biggest, greatest case they have seen. The biggest of all time.

    • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      4 months ago

      This is so succinctly Trump. 😂 Bravo! Really captures the essence in one and a half sentences.

  • DERRALEXANO@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    14·
    4 months ago

    Same for searching: “did Elon Musk make a nazi salute?” Only got a response when I replaced “nazi salute” with “offensive gesture”. Ok google

    • pyre@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      4 months ago

      fuck me. i don’t know why people still use google search; it was shit even before all this. jumped ship years ago.

    • TeddE@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      4 months ago

      The whole value in searching is to get me to primary sources in a reasonably efficient way. Everything about AI is inserting extra middle men. I just don’t understand how anyone tolerates it.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
    10·
    4 months ago

    So you’re saying that we should do more AI searches for “Trump Dementia”

    … and use variations of it like … “Trump old losing his mind”, “Trump old senile”, “Trump dementia don”, “Donny Dementia”, “Ding Dong Dementia Donny Trump”