An AI feature from Google that curated health recommendations from ordinary internet users and displayed them in search results has been quietly removed. “What People Suggest” organized community health content from online forums using artificial intelligence and presented it alongside standard medical search results. The removal was confirmed by three insiders and later acknowledged by a Google spokesperson.
The product was introduced at Google’s “The Check Up” health event in New York by then-chief health officer Karen DeSalvo, who described it as a step toward meeting users’ desire for real, peer-based health perspectives. The AI organized content from online health discussions into thematic categories, providing links to the original sources. Mobile users in the United States were the initial audience.
Google stated the feature was removed as part of a search page simplification effort, denying that safety or quality concerns influenced the decision. The credibility of this account was challenged when Google cited a blog post as public disclosure, a post that contained no reference to the discontinued feature. Critics have flagged this as a serious transparency failure.
Google’s handling of this issue comes in the context of an earlier investigation that found AI Overviews on its search platform were distributing false health information to approximately two billion users monthly. Google made limited changes following that investigation, removing some medical AI Overviews but stopping short of more sweeping reforms.
As the company prepares to showcase new AI health technology at its next event, the removal of “What People Suggest” will be an unavoidable part of the story. Whether Google can demonstrate genuine accountability in the face of this and other failures will determine how credibly it can position itself as a leader in responsible health AI.