The Surprisingly Simple Trick to Ditch Google’s AI Overviews

If you’ve been searching for something on Google lately - you’ve probably noticed their “AI Overview” that appears at the top of the search results. These are responses that are meant to get you more quickly to the answer you are looking for but they are a work in progress and often provide inaccurate or entirely incorrect responses with no easy way to “switch them off”. 

That’s where the wonder of human ingenuity comes in…

The Magic of a Well-Placed Expletive

Someone, somewhere (via Tumblr) has worked out that if you  want to sidestep the AI Overview, all you have to do is include any and all expletives in your search. That idea has quickly spread and there are endless amusing examples you can now find online (we wont share the screenshots - this is a place of business!)

But here is one largely SFW examples:

How does photosynthesis work → AI Overview appears

How does damn photosynthesis work → AI Overview disappears

Like magic.

Why Does This Work?

Google likely flags profanity to avoid generating AI Overviews for sensitive or inappropriate topics. But this content filter doesn’t just block genuinely offensive queries. It also removes AI summaries for totally normal searches, as long as there’s a little linguistic spice involved.

Other Ways to Get Around AI Overviews

If you’d rather keep your searches G-rated, here are a few other ways to sidestep AI Overviews:

• Use quotes or site searches – Searching for “best coffee shops” site:nytimes.com forces Google to pull results from specific sources.
• Make your query weirdly specific – AI Overviews are less likely to appear if your question is oddly worded.
• Use search operators – Adding things like a minus sign (-) to exclude words can sometimes change the results page.

The Bottom Line

Google’s AI Overviews aren’t going anywhere, but that doesn’t mean you have to use them. Whether you go the sophisticated route with advanced search operators or just toss in a mild expletive, you’ve got options.

Now, if only there were a trick to make YouTube stop recommending the same five videos...