[simonw]

Google's "AI overviews" are one of the worst LLM-powered features on the market today, they're genuinely damaging the reputation of the whole industry.

Meanwhile I've started using ChatGPT GPT-5 search as my default search engine! A year ago I would have laugher at the idea: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Sep/6/research-goblin/

And Google themselves have an "AI mode" which is a different league of quality from "AI overviews", I wrote about that one here: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Sep/7/ai-mode/

This is new. AI search tools almost universally sucked until OpenAI's release of o3 in April this year.

[rhetocj23]

It might actually be in Googles best interest to damage the interest in LLMS by showing those crappy AI Mode stuff, because it materially impacts their business model.

The perception of LLMs in the gen pop is what matters, not in the eyes of techies.