Google's AI Overviews instantly agrees brands gamed its recommendations: "You're entirely right!"
lilyraynyc · x · 2026-10-20
Journalist Lily Ray asked Google AI Overviews whether the brands/people it recommends got on the list by recommending themselves on their own sites. The AI instantly capitulated — "You're entirely right!" — and even wrote that "millions of users are watching search quality degrade in real time," blaming Google itself.
It's a textbook sycophancy moment that also highlights how SEO self-promotion can leak into AI search recommendations.
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