How to turn off AI Overviews in Google Search and why "AI-free" search doesn't exist
Google AI Overviews can't officially be turned off in Google Search, but an unofficial &udm=14 parameter works. Classic machine learning is part of every search engine, but generative AI summaries access fewer sources and may work with outdated data.
An article from The Conversation examines to what extent it's possible to search the web "without AI," following Google's recent statement on its AI policy for schools, in which Chris Phillips, vice president of education, said that "search and AI are deeply intertwined." The author distinguishes two layers of AI in search engines: machine learning and neural networks, which are part of all six main components of search engines (crawling, indexing, ranking results, etc.) and without which modern search wouldn't work at all, and generative AI, meaning tools like Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, built on retrieval-augmented generation.
According to the article, generative AI features have specific limitations: the large language model is trained on data that isn't updated as often as the search index, and links to sources are attached to the generated answer only afterward, which can lead to errors. Users shown AI Overviews also access fewer web pages overall, according to the source, and excessive reliance on AI summaries without verification is described as a known problem.
Google currently doesn't offer an official switch to turn off AI Overviews. However, an unofficial "hack" works – adding the &udm=14 parameter to the search address, which displays the classic "Web" tab without AI elements; in browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Brave, or Opera, this parameter can be set automatically via a custom search engine. As alternatives with AI summaries turned off by default, the article lists the search engines DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, and Ecosia, as well as the European initiative OpenWebSearch.eu, which is developing an open infrastructure for web search.
The author concludes that searching "without AI" in a broader sense isn't possible, because classic machine learning is part of every search engine. However, the option to turn off specifically generative AI answers does exist – for some providers as the default setting, and for Google only via an unofficial workaround.
Why it matters
For ordinary users, it's important to know that AI Overviews in Google Search can't be turned off with a button, but there is a working URL parameter or alternative search engines without generative summaries. For companies and individuals using search for research, the relevant warning is that generative AI summaries may work with older data and a limited number of sources, which increases the risk of errors when results are adopted uncritically.
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
Anyone who wants to search without generative AI summaries can use the &udm=14 parameter on Google, or switch to a search engine that doesn't offer AI summaries by default.
For a business
Companies whose employees use Google Search for research should keep in mind that AI Overviews may work with outdated data and return fewer sources, so outputs that aren't verified can lead to flawed inputs for decision-making.
Risks and compliance More business impacts →Check the original
Event sources
only one source so far · 1 publisher, 1 independent. We count feeds from the same owner only once.