Google Is Using AI To Modify Search Headlines, And It's Not Going Well

Google Is Using AI to Modify Search Headlines, and It’s Not Going Well

Last updated: 2026/03/24 at 4:42 AM

News Room Published 24 March 2026

Google is reportedly using AI to rewrite some news headlines in Search, and early results indicate the system isn’t fully ready yet.

As spotted by The Verge, Google is modifying some of the outlet’s headlines and occasionally making them incorrect. For example, a headline that was originally written as “I used the ‘cheat on everything’ AI tool and it didn’t help me cheat on anything” was changed to “‘Cheat on everything’ AI tool.”

The AI also strips key context from some headlines, making them harder to understand. In one case, it removed the first three words from “I met Olaf — the Frozen robot who might be the future of Disney Parks,” leaving a confusing headline that starts with a lowercase word.

“For many years, we’ve used automated systems to generate useful snippets (including titles) in Search to help users understand relevant information about a page,” Google told PCMag in a statement. “We’re running a small experiment that similarly aims to help people find and visit relevant pages by better matching titles to the query, when appropriate.”

Google says it creates snippets, including headlines, that are displayed in search results, in order to surface the most important information and boost engagement with web content. It acknowledges that the results will not always be 100% accurate.

Following the rollout of AI Overviews in search, the University of Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found a steep drop in traffic metrics from 2,756 news sites around the world: 33% worldwide and 38% in the US.

Google tested a similar system for Google Discover late last year, before making it a permanent feature for the feed in January. It too has had some accuracy problems. The Verge noticed that Google’s AI rewrote the headline on PCMag’s story about the FCC foreign drone ban to suggest that the agency had reversed its ban. In reality, our story explains that the Commerce Department ended its drone-ban effort since the FCC had it handled.

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In early 2025, meanwhile, Apple paused its news-related notification summaries after the feature sent out incorrect blurbs. They returned about six months later.

Editors’ Note: This story was updated with comment from Google.