How to block Google AI Overviews from Google Search results

There is no dedicated disable button to do away with Google's AI Overviews

Noah Johnson - May 18, 2024

An undated image of Googles search bar. — Freepik — An undated image of Google's search bar. — Freepik

You might have encountered AI summaries displayed at the top of your Google Search results. It is simply a massive generative AI update unveiled at the Google I/O 2024 event, which uses Gemini, Google's answer to OpenAI's ChatGPT, to transform the way we conduct searches by drawing information from the Web to automatically answer questions.

This marks the latest expansion of Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE), an optional Google Research Labs experiment that began in May of last year before being deployed in over 120 countries and territories in November.

The SGE uses a number of Google's AI models to provide Gemini-style natural language responses to a search query.

These summaries, called AI Insights, have been available as an option for the AI-curious for months, but the search giant has recently enabled them by default for hundreds of millions of users in the US. Plans are already underway to extend this functionality to users worldwide.

Although there is no dedicated "disable" button for Google's AI Insights, there are a few ways to prevent them from appearing in your search results.

How to turn off Google's AI Overviews feature

Use Google's new Web tab. On the search results page, click the More button (it is at the end of the line of tabs for News, Videos, Images, etc.) and select Web from the dropdown menu that appears.

This new Web filter returns to the basics, removing obstacles such as AI summaries, advertisements, answer boxes, and more from your search results. This way, you only get a plain Web page without any frills - AI-powered or otherwise.