Let’s talk about the AI overview feature on google (stay with me here).
AI overview was first introduced to the UK in August of 2024, but recently I have become very aware of it. Appearing under every search, giving you an ‘overview’ and then a more (albeit very slightly) in depth response - right in front of you, look no further. Which is great right? Everything you need to know all in one place, so why does it kinda scare me?
Is it because it’s eliminating further the need to use your brain, adding to the ever growing case of brain rot we all have? Before you’d have to search and look through different websites and choose which source you were going to take your information from, synthesise what you saw, without realising that you were doing it. And now, suddenly ( even though you still can ) you don’t have to do that. But maybe this is just a me problem, maybe I need to chill out, progress with the times, maybe this is how people felt about the internet when it was first invented?
I just think, that the human brain is the most powerful computer in the world - partly because of its ability to synthesise information, so surely we’re just adding to our brain rot by taking that task away from something we do multiple times a day.
And there have been studies done on how the Internet is essentially replacing the need for certain human memory systems – particularly aspects of “semantic memory” (i.e. memory of facts) again, stick with me here. Like how the ability to access information online has caused people to become more likely to remember where facts could be retrieved from rather than the facts themselves, indicating that people quickly become reliant on the Internet for information retrieval. The Internet acts as a single entity that is responsible for holding and retrieving virtually all factual information, and so, does not require you to remember what exact information is externally stored, or even where it is located making all other options for cognitive offloading become redundant (including books, friends and community) and this has been made even easier (and worse) by the introduction of AI overview, because you can get exactly the same information from exactly the same place, instantly.
But Ruby, surely the internet has made people smarter, it’s so much easier to learn about literally anything and everything, than even 20 years ago. AI overview is just increasing that. Yes, I agree. And Yes I use the internet to stay educated and teach myself things and learn new things all the time. But the constant availability of information from the internet may not actually lead to better use of information gained. There was a study that found that people who were told to search for specific information online, completed the task quicker than those who were using printed resources like books BUT they were less able to recall that information accurately. Is that not crazy? And you can see how AI overview could be increasing this further?
However … other studies do suggest that relying on the internet for factual memory storage might actually help your brain by ‘freeing up’ cognitive resources, therefore allowing us to use the newly available space in our brain for more ambitious things than previously possible. So, who knows, maybe all of this is a good thing.
I’m obviously not afraid of new technology. I’m writing this on a laptop, with notes I wrote down on my iPhone, I used the internet to research everything I just talked about, and I literally used AI overview to tell me how to turn itself off; which, by the way, you can’t. You can write '-ai' after every single search but you can’t actually turn it off.
And maybe that’s what creeps me out. The fact that it’s not a choice, it was just put there, I have to use it, end of. Maybe if I’d opted in to having it on my google I’d be more open to it.
A creator called Christabelle Marbun put it perfectly “we are suffering a disease of nonchalantness, please, for the love of god care!”. Care about your brain, care about you attention span and be aware of what you are consuming and how you are consuming it.
Thank you for reading this 'episode' of Real Talk - with Ruby, I’ll see you next time xoxo
