Google Removed a Health AI Feature That Relied on Amateur Community Opinions

A feature on Google Search that used AI to present health tips sourced from internet communities has been removed, the company confirmed. “What People Suggest” organized crowd-sourced health content from online discussions and displayed it to users seeking medical information. Three individuals with direct knowledge of the decision confirmed its removal before Google made an official statement.
The feature was unveiled at Google’s “The Check Up” health conference in New York, where then-chief health officer Karen DeSalvo outlined how it would add community depth to health search. She described how someone dealing with a condition like arthritis could use the feature to discover what others with the same condition had found helpful. The feature drew on online community discussions and organized them with AI.
A Google spokesperson stated the removal was related to search interface simplification and not connected to safety or quality issues. When asked for a public record of the decision, the company pointed to a blog post that made no reference to “What People Suggest.” The failure to provide transparent communication has been criticized by health AI observers.
The removal comes after an investigation documented widespread health misinformation in Google’s AI Overviews, which reached around two billion users monthly. Google removed AI Overviews from some health queries in response, but health professionals continued to call for more significant reforms.
With another Google health event scheduled, the company will seek to present a vision of responsible AI health innovation. However, the story of “What People Suggest” — introduced with promise, removed without acknowledgment — shows that there remains a significant gap between Google’s ambitions in health AI and the standards of transparency and safety required to fulfill them responsibly.