🦔 Google quietly dropped a search feature called "What People Suggest" that used AI to organize crowdsourced health advice from strangers into easy-to-understand themes. The company had said it showed "the potential of AI to transform health outcomes across the globe." A Google spokesperson told the Guardian the feature was scrapped as part of a "broader simplification" of the search page and had nothing to do with quality or safety. When asked where this was shared publicly, Google pointed to a blog post that doesn't mention the feature at all. My Take Google launched this thing with a blog post from their chief health officer explaining how it would help people find real insights from others with similar conditions. Now it's gone and they're pretending they announced the removal in a blog post that doesn't mention it. I find that harder to believe than just admitting the feature was a bad idea. The whole concept was crowdsourcing medical tips from amateurs and dressing it up with AI organization. You search for health advice and Google shows you what random people on the internet suggest. This comes after the Guardian found Google's AI Overviews were showing false and misleading health information to 2 billion people a month. Google initially downplayed those findings, then quietly removed AI Overviews for some medical queries. I think they know these features have problems, they just don't want to say it out loud because it undermines the pitch that AI is ready to transform healthcare. Easier to quietly kill things and hope nobody notices. Hedgie🤗