Google won’t stop replacing our news headlines with terrible AI | The VergeSkip to main contentThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.The VergeThe Verge logo.TechReviewsScienceEntertainmentAIPolicyHamburger Navigation ButtonThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.Hamburger Navigation ButtonNavigation DrawerThe VergeThe Verge logo.Login / Sign UpcloseCloseSearchTechExpandAmazonAppleFacebookGoogleMicrosoftSamsungBusinessSee all techGadgetsExpandLaptopsPhonesTVsHeadphonesSpeakersWearablesSee all gadgetsReviewsExpandSmart Home ReviewsPhone ReviewsTablet ReviewsHeadphone ReviewsSee all reviewsAIExpandOpenAIAnthropicSee all AIVerge ShoppingExpandBuying GuidesDealsGift GuidesSee all shoppingPolicyExpandAntitrustPoliticsLawSecuritySee all policyScienceExpandSpaceEnergyEnvironmentHealthSee all scienceEntertainmentExpandTV ShowsMoviesAudioSee all entertainmentGamingExpandXboxPlayStationNintendoSee all gamingStreamingExpandDisneyHBONetflixYouTubeCreatorsSee all streamingTransportationExpandElectric CarsAutonomous CarsRide-sharingScootersSee all transportationFeaturesVerge VideoExpandTikTokYouTubeInstagramPodcastsExpandDecoderThe VergecastVersion HistoryNewslettersExpandThe Verge DailyInstallerVerge DealsNotepadOptimizerRegulatorThe StepbackArchivesStoreSubscribeFacebookThreadsInstagramYoutubeRSSThe VergeThe Verge logo.Google won’t stop replacing our news headlines with terrible AIComments DrawerCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...TechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechGoogleCloseGooglePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GoogleWebCloseWebPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All WebGoogle won’t stop replacing our news headlines with terrible AIIt now says AI headlines are a ‘feature,’ not an experiment.It now says AI headlines are a ‘feature,’ not an experiment.by Sean HollisterCloseSean HollisterSenior EditorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Sean HollisterJan 23, 2026, 12:00 PM UTCLinkShareGiftThis headline is false, and it’s not PCMag’s fault — Google planted this atop its story (and others). Image: Google, PC MagSean HollisterCloseSean HollisterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Sean Hollister is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.In early December, I brought you the news that Google has begun replacing Verge headlines, and those of our competitors, with AI clickbait nonsense in its content feed. Google appeared to be backing away from the experiment, but now tells The Verge that its AI headlines in Google Discover are a feature, one that “performs well for user satisfaction.” I once again see lots of misleading claims every time I check my phone.Like I explained last month, these AI headlines are akin to a bookstore replacing the covers of the books it puts on display — only here, the “bookstore” is the news tab that appears when you swipe right on the homescreen of a Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel phone, and the “cover” might be a AI-generated lie instead of the truth.For example, Google’s AI claimed last week that “US reverses foreign drone ban,” citing and linking to this PCMag story for the news. That’s not just false — PCMag took pains to explain that it’s false in the story that Google links to! From PCMag’s story, bolding theirs:I saw a headline saying that the drone ban was dropped. Is that true? No. While it’s true the Commerce Department ended its efforts to restrict DJI and other drones from import in Jan. 2026, it only did so because it would be redundant in the wake of the FCC actions. The Commerce Department is a separate entity from the FCC, and its proposed restrictions were never put in place to begin with. Some reports on the Commerce Department’s decision have misleading headlines that could make you think the government did an about-face, so I don’t blame you for being confused.Google’s AI headline and summary, versus……the PCMag story it links to.What does the author of that PCMag story think? “It makes me feel icky,” Jim Fisher tells me over the phone. “I’d encourage people to click on stories and read them, and not trust what Google is spoon-feeding them.”He says Google should be using the headline that humans wrote, and if Google needs a summary, it can use the ones that publications already submit to help search engines parse our work.Google claims it’s not rewriting headlines. It characterizes these new offerings as “trending topics,” even though each “trending topic” presents itself as one of our stories, links to our stories, and uses our images, all without competent fact-checking to ensure the AI is getting them right.In some ways, Google’s current implementation isn’t quite as bad as it was a month ago. I’ve seen fewer examples of egregious clickbait, partly because Google Discover is now serving me quite a few unadulterated news stories alongside its AI ones — though it does cut off their genuine headlines far too quickly, making many tough to read.The AI is also no longer restricted to roughly four words per headline, so I no longer see nonsense headlines like “Microsoft developers using AI” or “AI tag debate heats.” (Instead, I occasionally see tripe like “Fares: Need AAA & AA Games” or “Dispatch sold millions; few avoided romance.”)An inane AI-generated headline above an original headline that Google is cutting off prematurely.Two of Google’s AI headlines.But Google’s AI has no clue what parts of these stories are new, relevant, significant, or true, and it can easily confuse one story for another.On December 26th, Google told me that “Steam Machine price & HDMI details emerge.” They hadn’t. On January 11th, Google proclaimed that “ASUS ROG Ally X arrives.” (It arrived in 2024; the new Xbox Ally arrived months ago.) On January 20th, it wrote that “Glasses-free 3D tech wows,” introducing readers to “New 3D tech called Immensity from Leia” — but linking to this TechRadar story about an entirely different company called Visual Semiconductor. I found another that claimed to be about a GPU maker commenting on the RAM shortage; it linked instead to a Digitimes story about a RAM maker.I believe this story was about how the system was back in stock at Best Buy.I suspect Google confused the TechRadar story with a CNET one.I’m particularly frustrated when I see bait-and-switch headlines on Verge stories, of course, and worried they’re taking away our ability to market our own work.Google boiled down my colleague Jay Peters’ story about how RGB stripe OLED monitors can unlock sharper text and more accurate colors to the boring “New OLED Gaming Monitors Debut.” My story about letting you experience an immersive 3D demo of the Lego Smart Brick like you’re there with us at CES became “Lego Smart Play launches March 1,” a date that wasn’t news by the time Google wrote that! And Google AI decided to advertise our big Verge Awards at CES 2026 story as “Robots & AI Take CES,” which was basically the opposite of our conclusion in that story.Please come directly to our website instead of relying on Google as intermediary.And yet, our new AI overlords are not effectively weeding out the worst human clickbait in exchange for our fealty. One headline that Google’s AI didn’t overwrite was “Star Wars Outlaws Free Download Available For Less Than 24 Hours” by Screen Rant. Here’s what the author of that story reveals halfway down the post:Just the one code being given away when thousands of people are likely to get involved feels a bit stingy, although at the time of writing Ubisoft’s post hasn’t exactly blown up, so you might be in with a shot.Yes, Ubisoft gave away a single copy of a game on X, in a giveaway only open to residents of the UK, yet Google’s news bot decided that Screen Rant’s FOMO clickbait was fine to serve up without tweaks at all.There was a *single* code available to one lucky winner in the UK. For shame.Here’s the statement from Google spokesperson Jennifer Kutz about the Google feature:We launched a new feature last year in Discover to help people explore topics that are covered by multiple creators and websites. The feature includes a helpful AI-powered overview of the topic, a featured image, and links to related stories. The overview headline reflects information across a range of sites, and is not a rewrite of an individual article headline. This feature performs well for user satisfaction, and we continue to experiment with the UI to help people click through and explore content on the web.Google declined our request for an interview to more fully explain the idea.I don’t know how broadly Google is showing these “trending topics” AI headlines yet, but it seems the company is testing them beyond the Google Discover news feed, too. I’ve recently seen some of them appear as push notifications to my phone; tapping them takes me to a Google Gemini chatbot that attempts to summarize a recent piece of news.Google changes like these are the biggest reason The Verge now has a subscription, without which we won’t survive Google Zero.Disclosure: Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company, has filed a lawsuit against Google, seeking damages from its illegal ad tech monopoly.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Sean HollisterCloseSean HollisterSenior EditorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Sean HollisterGoogleCloseGooglePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GoogleTechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechWebCloseWebPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All WebMost PopularMost PopularClaude Code is suddenly everywhere inside MicrosoftSony announces its first turntables in yearsEpic and Google have a secret $800 million Unreal Engine and services dealThe state attorneys general are as mad as you areHow much can a city take?The Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. 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Google is increasingly replacing news headlines with AI-generated content, a practice that raises concerns about journalistic integrity and user experience. According to senior editor Sean Hollister’s reporting for The Verge, Google has shifted from experimenting with these AI headlines to actively deploying them within its Discover news feed and even as push notifications on user’s phones. The core issue, as Hollister details, is that these AI-generated headlines frequently misrepresent stories, misattribute information, and outright fabricate narratives.

For example, Google’s AI initially claimed that the U.S. had reversed a drone ban, linking to a PCMag article that explicitly refuted this claim. This wasn’t a simple correction; PCMag’s story itself highlighted the misleading nature of the AI’s linking and framing. Hollister recounts numerous other instances, including the AI’s confusion of different tech stories, misrepresentation of giveaways, and even distorting The Verge’s own reporting. The AI erroneously named a gaming monitor as a "new OLED Gaming Monitors Debut," radically altering the substance of Hollister’s original piece. Furthermore, the AI repurposed The Verge’s coverage of CES 2026, branding it as "Robots & AI Take CES,” a completely different conclusion than the piece’s actual findings.

Google argues that these AI headlines are “trending topics” designed to help users explore content across multiple sources. They claim the feature performs well for user satisfaction and are continuously experimenting with its user interface. However, Hollister’s investigation exposes a fundamental flaw: the AI lacks the capacity to discern accurate information and often substitutes it with fabricated narratives. The AI's presentation of information – particularly when linked to external articles – actively undermines the credibility of legitimate news sources.

The Verge’s own financial stability is underscored by this issue—the company's reliance on Google’s Discover feed means its survival is threatened by Google’s actions. This situation generates concern, not only for journalistic standards but also for the wider dissemination of reliable information. As Hollister points out, a crucial element is the AI's inability to properly represent nuance and complexity, resulting in a simplification, and potential distortion, of stories. The situation also raises serious questions about Google's role as a gatekeeper of information, and the potential consequences of algorithmic misinformation.