Google’s Artificial Intelligence Overviews are AI‑generated summaries that use information from multiple web pages and appear near the top of the results, often just below the search bar. They’re designed to give a quick answer so users may not feel the need to click through to individual sites.
Can you use this (or other AI-powered tools) to help with your legal issue? The short answer is no. The danger isn’t just getting incorrect information, although it might provide some. The greater danger is that AI-generated answers will be incomplete or misleading. These limitations are not unique to Google; they’re common to most consumer-facing large language models today.
Numbers and examples might help explain. A recent analysis by Oumi, published in the New York Times, found that Google’s AI Overviews were accurate in roughly 9 out of 10 test searches, or about 90–91% of the time. Even for those of us for whom math is neither easy nor fun, 90–91% is a simple number to wrap your head around. It sounds like a solid A‑, not bad at all. That’s not too alarming, right?
To see why it’s not so easy to dismiss, remember that Google now processes more than 5 trillion searches every year. At that scale, even a 9–10% error rate means AI Overviews are still producing millions of unsupported or wrong answers every hour, adding up to tens of millions of questionable responses across a typical day, even though not every search currently shows an AI Overview. This is particularly concerning in law, where even 1 out of 10 misleading answers can have serious, real‑world consequences
This is not meant to be alarmist or to dissuade anyone from using AI tools. They can be helpful in numerous ways. However, when using Google to find legal information (or any information that involves a professional field), keep a few tips in mind to avoid misinformation or incomplete answers.
1. The Law Is Nuanced
Google AIO is intended to be a quick, clear, and click-free experience. That’s great for rapidly finding the basic information you’re looking for. But for professional fields like the law and healthcare, nuance is everything.
Google AIO is about consensus. This makes sense, as it wants to be as accurate as possible for the widest audience. But the danger isn’t that the consensus is wrong; it’s that it might be an incomplete picture.
As just one example, imagine you want to hire someone for your growing business, something you haven’t done before. You google “How can I screen job candidates” to help you get some ideas of how it works. One recommendation is to use an applicant tracking system to help speed up the process. Sure, you think, good idea. ATS tools are becoming more popular. But what the AIO might not explain is that, in some states, you must give candidates specific notice or obtain consent if you use AI‑driven tools (such as automated resume screening or AI‑based video interview analysis) to evaluate them.
2. Hallucinations
In 2024, Reddit signed a reported $60‑million‑per‑year licensing deal allowing Google to use Reddit content to train its AI models and improve products like Search and Gemini. That means some AI answers may be influenced by Reddit posts, which can range from helpful to highly unreliable. Reddit can be a very good source of information (FindLaw has its own community if you have a legal question), but it can also be a source of AIO hallucinations.
Perhaps the most famous Google AIO hallucination occurred in 2024. It told users that non-toxic glue could be used to help cheese stick to homemade pizza better. Apparently, it took that answer from a sarcastic Reddit user.
While AIO is getting better, laws are still a frequent source of hallucinations. This is because laws are frequently changed. When providing the answer to a legal question, Google AIO may read a relevant 2018 statute. It may then also read a new 2026 law that just passed. Instead of realizing that the 2026 law replaced the 2018 law, it may merge the two to provide a “consensus” answer, which would be wrong.
3. Legal Information Is Not Legal Advice
There’s an important distinction between legal information and legal advice.
A lawyer’s job is not to be an encyclopedia of legal information. Lawyering is a skill that involves applying the specific facts of a case to the relevant law and convincing either a judge or a jury that their client is in the right. This is not something that any AI tool can do.
Note that this applies to any articles on FindLaw, as well. We can provide legal information, but how you incorporate that information into your own situation is best discussed with a lawyer. A lot of personal legal issues are not about knowing the law, but rather how the law applies to the facts you are able to prove in court.
For example, it can be beneficial to know, in the early stages of divorce, what the court will consider when determining child custody. You can find this information on FindLaw or through a Google search. But whether a court will order primary custody or joint custody, and the exact split, will be highly dependent on your individual family and how you can prove what’s best for your children to the court. A quick AIO answer will not be tailored to the court you’ll be in, how you, your spouse, and your children are currently getting along, and a host of other personal things that could impact your case.
Fewer Legal Topics Appearing in AIO
Google is aware of the issue and has reduced AI Overview coverage for some sensitive queries, especially in areas like law and other high-stakes topics. Still, AI Overviews appear fairly frequently, and even if you are not asking specifically about the law, AIO may give you a false sense of security about your legal standing.
This isn’t meant to single out one AI system; tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and other consumer chatbots all have similar limitations with hallucinations and missing context. Because Google Search is used so heavily, even a modest error rate in AI Overviews can translate into an enormous number of incorrect or misleading answers seen by users, without implying that AIO is worse than every other tool.
Instead, it’s a reminder that the quick AI answer is a starting point, not something to rely on for legal issues that can carry significant, long-lasting consequences. Even Google’s own documentation warns that AI‑generated answers can be inaccurate or incomplete and should not be treated as professional advice, especially on legal, medical, or financial topics.
The takeaway is that it’s important to always double-check Google’s AI summaries, use AIO as a starting point to get an idea of the kind of search queries you need to ask, then use that information to refine what you ask your lawyer. When it comes to most legal issues, there isn’t an easy shortcut.
Related Resources
- New Lawsuit Claims ChatGPT Practices Law Without a License (FindLaw’s Practice of Law)
- SDNY Judge Rules Defendant’s Own Use of AI Tools for Strategizing Not Privileged (FindLaw’s Practice of Law)
- Grammarly Sued Over ‘Expert Review’ Tool That Used Journalists’ Names Without Permission (FindLaw’s Courtside)
