Based on the article, the problem isn't that Google is attempting to present the AI Overview as "search" to the users. Google is attempting to claim
to the court that AI Overviews are just like search, and the court isn't buying it.
The problem here is that
1) the AI Overview is giving incorrect information, and
2) it is Google's own words
...which makes Google liable for anything false there.
They weren't liable for false statements in search results, because that was 100% other people's content, being linked to, with a small blurb taken directly from their words. With the AI Overviews, regardless of whether it's getting its information from other people's content, it's remixing it based on Gemini's algorithms and synthesising statements that are frequently wrong.
The problem here is that
1) the AI Overview is giving incorrect information, and
2) it is Google's own words
...which makes Google liable for anything false there.
They weren't liable for false statements in search results, because that was 100% other people's content, being linked to, with a small blurb taken directly from their words. With the AI Overviews, regardless of whether it's getting its information from other people's content, it's remixing it based on Gemini's algorithms and synthesising statements that are frequently wrong.