![\"Come](\"https:\/\/platform.theverge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/bg3-qi2-google-discover.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCome on.<\/p>\n
I read a lot of my bedtime news via Google Discover, aka \u201cswipe right on your Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel homescreen until you see a news feed appear,\u201d and that\u2019s where these new AI headlines are beginning to show up.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not all bad. For example, \u201cOrigami model wins prize\u201d and \u201cHyundai, Kia gain share\u201d seem fine, even if not remotely as interesting as the original headlines. (\u201cHyundai and Kia are lapping the competition as US market share reaches a new record<\/a>\u201d and \u201c14-year-old wins prize for origami that can hold 10,000 times its own weight<\/a>\u201d sound like they\u2019re actually worth a click!)<\/p>\n But in the seeming attempt to boil down every story to four words or less, Google\u2019s new headline experiment is attaching plenty of misleading and inane headlines to journalists\u2019 work, and with little disclosure that Google\u2019s AI is rewriting them.<\/p>\n The very first one I saw was \u201cSteam Machine price revealed,\u201d which it most certainly was not! Valve won\u2019t reveal that till next year. Ars Technica\u2019s original headline<\/a> was the far more reasonable \u201cValve\u2019s Steam Machine looks like a console, but don\u2019t expect it to be priced like one.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMicrosoft developers using AI\u201d? No shit, Sherlock. (That one was tacked on my colleague Tom Warren\u2019s story about \u201cHow Microsoft\u2019s developers are using AI<\/a>\u201d \u2014 Google removed the two words that make a silly headline into a real one!)<\/p>\n Reached for comment, my colleague Tom Warren said: \u201clol wtf Google.\u201d<\/p>\n I also saw Google try to claim that \u201cAMD GPU tops Nvidia,\u201d as if AMD had announced a new groundbreaking graphics card, when the actual Wccftech story<\/a> is about how a single German retailer managed to sell more AMD units than Nvidia units within a single week\u2019s span. Wccftech\u2019s headline was relatively responsible, but Google turned it into clickbait.<\/p>\n Then there are the headlines that simply don\u2019t make sense out of context, something real human editors avoid like plague. What does \u201cSchedule 1 farming backup\u201d mean? How about \u201cAI tag debate heats\u201d?<\/p>\n Make no mistake, the problem isn\u2019t just that these AI headlines are bad. It\u2019s that Google is taking away our agency to market our own work, like if we\u2019d written a book and the bookstore decided to replace its cover.<\/p>\n We try hard to craft headlines that invite readers in, ones that responsibly encapsulate the news, ones that help you understand why a story matters right away and get you excited when it\u2019s justified. (Does my headline for this story seem the right amount of excited?) And yet Google seems to think it can just replace these headlines, in a way that might confuse our readers and think we\u2019re the ones generating clickbait, since our publications\u2019 names appear right next to them.<\/p>\n Google does disclose that something about these news items is \u201cGenerated with AI, which can make mistakes,\u201d but not what, and readers only see that message if they tap the \u201cSee more\u201d button:<\/p>\n What Google shows me when I tap \u201csee more.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s too easy for readers to think we intentionally send our stories to Google Discover with these headlines.<\/p>\n The good news is, this is a Google experiment. If there\u2019s enough backlash, the company probably won\u2019t proceed. \u201cThese screenshots show a small UI experiment for a subset of Discover users,\u201d Google spokesperson Mallory Deleon tells The Verge. \u201cWe are testing a new design that changes the placement of existing headlines to make topic details easier to digest before they explore links from across the web.\u201d<\/p>\n But the overall trend at Google has been to prioritize its own products at the expense of sending clicks to news websites. While the company swears it isn\u2019t destroying the web with AI search<\/a>, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find a news outlet that agrees, and even Google has admitted in court<\/a> that \u201cthe open web is already in rapid decline.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the reason The Verge now has a subscription<\/a>: We can\u2019t survive Google Zero<\/a> without your help.<\/p>\n Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Sean HollisterClose Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All by Sean Hollister<\/a><\/p>\n AICloseAI<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All AI<\/a><\/p>\n GoogleCloseGoogle<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Google<\/a><\/p>\n ReportCloseReport<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nSean Hollister<\/p>\n