Google’s AI Overviews have been returning broken, chatbot-like replies to certain search terms, including “ignore” and “skip,” and by Friday afternoon the company stopped showing AI Overviews entirely for “disregard.” Google has not commented.
On Friday, a simple search for “disregard” was enough to make Google’s AI Overviews act like they were having a bad day.
Instead of the usual AI summary, the overview returned a response that looked more like a chat window than a search answer. One screenshot circulating online showed the message: “Got it. If you need anything else or have a new question later, just let me know!”
The next change came later that same day. By Friday afternoon, Google no longer displayed an AI Overview for “disregard” at all. In its place, the results showed a list of news stories about the issue first.
Google hasn’t replied to requests for comment.
The “disregard” glitch wasn’t the only strange failure. When searching for “ignore. ” Google’s AI Overview showed a different kind of broken output to a colleague at the publication that first spotted the issue. The message read: “Message received!. I’m here and ready to help. What would you like to focus on today?. Just let me know if there’s a specific topic, task, or question you’d like to explore.”.
A search for “skip” didn’t do any better. That AI Overview responded with: “It looks like your message was just a test or a typo! Feel free to ask a question, share a prompt, or let me know how I can help you with your tasks today. I’m ready whenever you are!”
As of Friday afternoon, Google was still showing AI Overviews with broken responses when searching for “ignore” and “skip.”
The whole thing reads like a glitch you’d expect in a chatbot testing environment—until you remember it’s happening inside one of the most widely used search experiences on the internet. In the span of a day. one term caused the AI Overview to switch to news listings. while other terms still triggered the mismatched. message-style replies.
Update, May 22: Google now isn’t showing AI Overviews for “disregard.”
Google AI Overviews Google Search disregard ignore skip artificial intelligence search bugs
So the AI literally can’t handle one word searches? lol.
I mean “disregard” is like telling it to shut up right? It probably crashed from the instructions or something. Google will blame the AI like it’s a user error anyway.
Wait it stopped showing overviews for “disregard” but still shows the messed up chatty replies for “ignore” and “skip”? That doesn’t sound consistent at all. Sounds like they’re trying to train it and the prompts are messing with it. Also why is it talking like a customer service rep.
This is why I don’t trust those AI summaries. The second it’s like “message received!” it’s not even a search anymore, it’s just roleplay. Next thing you know people type one of these words and it starts hiding the results behind news stories like it’s embarrassed. I saw something similar with maps too, maybe Google just can’t handle negative commands in general? idk