Google’s AI Medical Crowdsourcing Tool Is Dead — And the Company Barely Mentioned It

An AI-powered feature on Google Search that surfaced amateur health advice from internet forums has been shut down, with minimal public communication from the company. “What People Suggest” was designed to gather community health experiences and organize them through AI for users with health queries. Three sources confirmed the feature is no longer available, and Google’s spokesperson later acknowledged its removal without offering a substantive explanation.
The feature was launched at Google’s annual health conference in New York, where it was presented as a forward-looking approach to health search. At the time, former chief health officer Karen DeSalvo expressed enthusiasm about the tool’s potential to democratize health knowledge. She highlighted use cases such as helping people with arthritis discover exercise tips from others who share the condition.
In explaining the removal, Google’s communications team described it as part of a broader search simplification effort, not a safety-related decision. Yet when the company was challenged to produce its public disclosure of the change, it cited a blog post that did not reference the feature. This failure to provide consistent, verifiable communication has drawn significant criticism.
The incident is occurring against the backdrop of a broader debate about AI and health information. Earlier this year, a published investigation found that Google’s AI Overviews contained dangerous inaccuracies and were reaching billions of users monthly. The investigation prompted Google to partially scale back AI Overviews for medical searches, though the changes were described by some as cosmetic.
With a new installment of “The Check Up” approaching, Google appears committed to expanding its role in health AI. Chief health officer Michael Howell and colleagues are expected to present new research and innovations at the event. But the unresolved questions around “What People Suggest” suggest that transparency and accountability remain works in progress at one of the world’s most powerful technology companies.