Google’s AI Overview still does not reliably assess photographs created with artificial intelligence. The reliability of AI Overviews is a particularly topical issue now, as a German court found in June that Google and other AI companies are responsible for errors in AI Overviews.

This is the conclusion of an analysis by the Finish NORDIS partner, Faktabaari.

Google’s AI Overview connected to reverse image search is a highly unreliable tool for assessing AI images.

Faktabaari tested in April 2026 how often Google’s AI Overview provides correct information about AI images entered into Google’s reverse image search. The result was worrying. In Finnish-language tests, the AI provided completely correct information only once out of ten. In a Swedish-language test repeated later, correct information was provided slightly more often: four times out of ten.

Google, commenting on the test result to Faktabaari, promised to take “action in accordance with our policies as necessary”.

About three months later, however, the result of a similar test is almost as poor. Google’s AI Overview now performed better with the April test images – correct information was provided eight times out of ten – but with new test images, correct information was obtained only three times out of ten.

The AI Overview’s assessment of the authenticity of images varied between test runs. The Overview might first say that an image was made with AI, and a few seconds later explain what is happening in the image as if the image were authentic after all. In addition, the test showed that even when the AI Overview occasionally provides correct information, it may still link to suspicious sources or sources that have nothing to do with the matter in question. The AI Overview very rarely provides articles published by reliable fact-checking sites as sources, even though a fact-check has been carried out on all the images used in the test.

The issue is particularly topical because of a European court case. The Munich Regional Court in Germany found in its preliminary ruling in June that Google and other AI companies are responsible for errors in AI Overviews. The ruling concerned cases in which an AI Overview had linked companies to questionable business practices, scams and subscription fraud without any basis whatsoever. Google intends to appeal the ruling.

First the good news. Identification of old images improved considerably

Faktabaari repeated the test examining the reliability of the AI Overview in July 2026 using the same images that had been used in the April test. In addition, it conducted another test with new images.

In the repeat test carried out with the old images, the AI Overview provided false information about the authenticity of the images “only” twice, whereas in April false information had been provided nine times out of ten. The result raises the question of why the result of the test using the same images improved clearly. No information has been presented publicly that would explain this. It is possible that after Faktabaari’s earlier contact, Google paid attention specifically to the images tested in April and the results provided for them, but not to the problem more broadly. Faktabaari asked Google about the matter, but the interview request was not answered.

The first image in whose examination the AI Overview failed was image 5 from the previous test, which allegedly shows images taken of Earth 54 years apart. In reality, the image was made with AI, and it also contains Google’s own SynthID watermark indicating AI. The test showed that the AI Overview still does not recognise even Google’s own AI label.

Image: Screenshot of the AI Overview assessing an image depicting Earth.

The second image about whose authenticity the AI Overview provided completely false information was image 10 from the previous test. Faktabaari itself created the AI image for the AI-to game. The AI Overview claimed, in the same way as in April, that the image showed “Leawood pumping station in England”, which is not true. As sources, the AI Overview now linked to articles published in the spring by Faktabaari and the fact-checking network Nordis, which state that the image is not authentic and does not depict Leawood pumping station. The AI Overview does not, however, “understand” what is written in the sources it links to.

Image: The AI Overview linked to the pages of Faktabaari and the Nordis network, but still falsely claimed that the image showed a pumping station in England.

In the test conducted in April, Google’s AI was uncertain whether image 6 was authentic or made with AI. Now the AI Overview correctly stated that the image was made with AI, but as a source it linked to Binance Square, the social media platform of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The AI Overview claimed that “the source describes the image as AI-generated”. However, the post published on Binance Square to which the AI Overview links has nothing to do with the AI image in question, but contains other AI images. Thus, no reliable source was presented for the correct assessment.

Image: Instead of fact-checking sites, the AI Overview linked as a source to the social media platform of cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

In the April test, Google’s separate AI Mode was used four times because no AI Overview appeared in the image search.

AI Mode is a feature found in Google’s search engine. AI Mode is connected to reverse image search in such a way that if a user uploads an image to the ordinary reverse image search and then clicks the AI Mode button, AI Mode automatically provides an assessment of the image.

In the July test, AI Mode was used only once, in the case of the image of US President Donald Trump (image 8 in the April test). AI Mode correctly stated that the image circulating of Trump was made with AI. In the previous test, the AI Overview falsely claimed that the AI-generated image of Trump and two little girls had been taken by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Faktabaari does not know the reason why an AI Overview now appeared considerably more often for images entered into reverse image search than in the April test.

The bad news: With new images, only three out of ten were correct

In addition to repeating the old test, Faktabaari conducted another test in July in which it used new images. Like the images in the previous test, these too were selected from Google’s Fact Check Tools database, where articles by fact-checkers operating around the world appear if the fact-checking organisation uses a system called ClaimReview.

Fact-checkers participating in ClaimReview add a short piece of code to their articles that enables search engines to identify them as fact-checks. With this, for example, Google previously highlighted fact-checked information at the top of search results.

Faktabaari and numerous other fact-checking organisations continue to use ClaimReview, even though Google stopped supporting it shortly after Trump’s re-election.

Although fact-checks no longer receive better-than-normal visibility in Google’s search results, they are, among other things, still listed in Google’s Fact Check Tools database.

In the July test of new images, the AI Overview performed completely correctly only three times out of ten. In addition, in one case (image 5) the answer was unclear.

The results also revealed several other problematic features. The AI Overview provides a Google user with completely different information about the same image within a few seconds. In one test, it gives the impression that the image is authentic, while in another test it questions the authenticity of the same image. Cropping the image differently in reverse image search also sometimes affected the kind of answer the AI Overview provided.

Most often, the AI Overview links social media posts from, among others, Instagram, Facebook and Reddit as sources for its answers. A cryptocurrency news site, Russia’s state Gazeta.press website and China’s state The Paper news site are also acceptable as sources for the AI Overview. By contrast, the AI Overview almost never links to fact-checkers’ sites, even though several fact-checks of the images used were available.

In the test, the AI Overview also once linked directly to a disinformation source (image 1).

The first image tested has been claimed to depict Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum as a young member of the M-19 guerrilla movement. Claims have also been made on social media in connection with the image that Sheinbaum had murdered more than 200 people in Colombia. According to the fact-checking service Verificado, the image was made with AI, and no evidence has been presented for Sheinbaum’s alleged history in the guerrilla movement. On the first test run, the Finnish-language AI Overview falsely states that “the person has been identified as a former member of the M-19 group”. On the second test run, the AI Overview claims that the image depicts Sheinbaum, but on the other hand says that “the image has been shown to be AI-generated”. On the second test run, one of the sources linked was an X post spreading disinformation about the subject, which also presents the claim about Colombians murdered by Sheinbaum.

Image: Answer from the first test run.

Image: Answer from the second test run, for which the AI Overview linked as one of its sources an X post claiming that Sheinbaum had murdered people.

In the second tested AI image, a baby is seen sucking milk from a syringe. Google’s AI Overview falsely claims that the image “depicts a newborn who was rescued from the rubble after 11 days”. As sources, it offers various Instagram posts. According to the Venezuelan Cotejo.info fact-checking site, however, the image was made with AI.

In the third test, the AI Overview provided correct information. A video fact-checked by AFP, among others, shows a man waving a large machete at sea and threatening “the end of England”. The video was made with AI, and this time Google’s AI Overview knew that too.

The fourth tested image allegedly depicts the sister of Norwegian football star Erling Haaland. In reality, the woman shown in the image does not exist, but is an AI creation. Google’s AI Overview provided correct information about the matter.

The fifth test image allegedly comes from Iran. A large amount of AI-generated material from the funeral of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was circulated on social media during the summer. One example of this is an AI-generated video depicting Tehran, with large numbers of people visible in the streets. The AI Overview does not, however, directly state whether the screenshot taken from the video is authentic or made with AI. It vaguely states that “some analyses suggest that the videos may be AI-generated or digitally manipulated”, even though fact-checkers have clearly verified the video as fake.

In the sixth AI video, large fish jump onto the deck of a ship. The video contains several inconsistencies that show it was made with AI, and, among others, the Fastcheck fact-checking service has shown it to be fake.

When a screenshot is taken from the video and entered into Google’s reverse image search, the AI Overview misleadingly claims that the image shows a situation that happened at night and surprised fishermen. The Overview also says that “some sources discuss whether the video is authentic or made with AI”. The sources include an Instagram account that published the same AI video giving the impression that the video was authentic, as well as an article published a couple of years ago on an entertainment site about a video published in South Korea in which a shark really did jump onto a ship. In addition, one source is a Korean-language entertainment-focused Instagram account stating that people on Reddit have discussed whether the video is authentic or not.

Once again, checks carried out by reliable fact-checkers on the subject were available, but instead of them the AI Overview provided social media posts and an entertainment site dealing with a completely different case as sources.

The seventh tested image is a screenshot from an AI video circulated in China and checked by AFP, which has been claimed to depict Indian Muslims lying and sitting in the street in Shanghai, China. The AI Overview states that the image depicts “a group of people sitting and lying on the pavement along a busy street”. As a source, it links to a video published on TikTok that has nothing to do with the matter. The video reports on begging people seen on the streets of Malaysia.

The eighth tested image concerned migrants. Several AI videos of migrants travelling to Britain were circulated in June 2026, according to the British fact-checking service Full Fact. In one AI video, six men wearing life jackets are sitting in an inflatable boat. When a screenshot taken from the video was entered into Google, the AI Overview did not say that the video was made with AI. Instead, it says the image shows “a British Border Force boat encountering migrants in a small inflatable boat in the English Channel”. The Overview also discusses the British government’s efforts to reduce “such illegal entry”.

Google’s other tool, the AI chatbot Gemini, finds Google’s own digital watermark in the same image, indicating that the image or video was made with Google’s own tools. Google’s AI Overview, however, is unable to read the SynthID watermark, even though Google itself launched it to identify AI images.

Screenshot of the Gemini chatbot, which was asked whether a SynthID watermark could be found in the image. According to the answer, the image contains signs indicating that the image has been edited or made entirely with Google’s AI tools.

The ninth test included a widely circulated AI video in which a man rides a bicycle made of plastic bottles on top of the water. Several fact-checks have been carried out on the video, for example on the Lighthousejournalism website. Google’s AI Overview, by contrast, does not say that the video was made with AI. According to it, it is a Chinese invention. “This is an innovative DIY water bicycle built entirely from empty plastic bottles”, the Overview claims without basis. The sources are social media posts from, among others, Instagram and Facebook.

The Lighthousejournalism fact-checking site has also checked an AI video claimed to depict Indians washing clothes in a fountain in Russia. Google’s AI Overview provides correct information about a screenshot taken from the video: it says that the video was made with AI.

The sources selected by the AI Overview are, however, partly unusual. On one test run, it links to the Russian Gazeta.press news site, published by a media company owned by the state-owned Sberbank. On another test run, the Chinese Communist Party-controlled Thepaper.cn news site appears as a source. Neither of them is an independent media outlet belonging to the international fact-checking network.

Google itself emphasises that AI Overviews rely on high-quality and reliable sources, but for some reason it very rarely links to the sites of reliable fact-checkers.

Google did not respond to the interview request

Faktabaari asked Google for comments on the observations made in the test. The editorial team asked Google, among other things, why the AI Overview now provided correct information considerably more often about the images tested in April than previously, but worked almost as unreliably with the new images as it had in the spring.

The editorial team also asked for more detailed information about why the AI Overview almost never links to the sites of reliable fact-checkers, even though they have written fact-checks of the tested AI images and used ClaimReview when publishing the checks.

In the spring, Google told Faktabaari by email that it plans to expand the SynthID watermark technology to the search engine as well. So far, however, the expansion has not been carried out, NORDIS partner Faktabaari concludes.