Google Quietly Ends Medical Advice AI Feature After Launch With Big Health Promises

Google launched a feature promising to transform how people access community health knowledge — and then quietly removed it without meaningful public acknowledgment. “What People Suggest” was an AI-based search tool that gathered health perspectives from online communities and presented them in organized formats. Three informed sources confirmed its removal, and Google later confirmed the fact while offering an unconvincing rationale.
Karen DeSalvo, Google’s then-chief health officer, had introduced the feature at a high-profile New York health event, writing that it fulfilled a genuine user desire to connect with health experiences from people in similar situations. The AI tool organized forum discussions into themes and linked users to the source content. The feature was released to mobile users in the US.
Google attributed the removal to a simplification of its search layout and refused to acknowledge safety or quality concerns as contributing factors. But when the company was asked to provide documentation of a public announcement, the referenced blog post contained no mention of the feature. This lack of transparency has been condemned by observers closely following Google’s health AI activities.
The timing overlaps with an investigation that found Google’s AI Overviews were providing misleading and false health information to approximately two billion users monthly. In response, Google selectively removed AI Overviews for certain health searches, a move that critics described as damage control rather than genuine reform.
With another round of health-focused announcements from Google expected soon, the spotlight is on the company to demonstrate that its approach to health AI is improving. The story of “What People Suggest” — from enthusiastic launch to quiet discontinuation — is a cautionary example of what happens when innovation outpaces accountability. Google must show it has internalized that lesson.