Have you ever searched contentious issues on Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), such as the 2020 presidential election or the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines? Unfortunately, conspiracy theories and other false information about topics like these abound on the internet.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) announced on Thursday that it is working to reduce the amount of fake content by enhancing the quality of the results in its “featured snippets” and making it more straightforward for users to locate the information sources they search for. Multitask Unified Model, or MUM, a new artificial intelligence model, is being introduced by the corporation to do that.
Google Search Results
You may find featured snippets in your Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) search results, which are brief responses to frequently asked questions. When you type in a question like “How tall is the Empire State Building?” Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) will respond with a quick reaction atop the list of website results.
Even though the information in those snippets is technically correct, there are situations when it doesn’t answer the user’s question. According to Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Search VP Pandu Nayak, a recent example was when a user asked how long it took light from the Sun to reach Earth. The highlighted snippet retrieved information from a website on the solar system and the time it took light from Pluto to reach Earth.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is utilizing MUM to stop those snippets from displaying inaccurate data. With this upgrade, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) pulls a consensus response from websites that exhibit knowledge, authority, and reliability on a related topic and produces the featured snippet. According to Nayak, a health website created by a medical organization is an example of a website that exhibits these traits.
What happens if the top results are fake websites? According to Nayak, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) can identify which websites are low quality, use misleading titles, propagate falsehoods, or incite hatred, and will not use them for featured snippets.
According to Nayak, the business is ensuring the feature can identify false premises to prevent featured snippets from bringing in information when they shouldn’t. Nayak used the example of someone looking up the year that Snoopy killed Abraham Lincoln. Previously, a featured snippet would provide the user with the date of Lincoln’s murder but omit to inform them that a cartoon dog was not present.
Now, according to Nayak, a featured snippet won’t show up when someone searches for a false statement.
Featured Image: Megapixl @Miluxian
