Google I/O 2025: Welcome to the AI Good Place — or Is It the Bad One?

Introduction Of AI

If Google I/O 2025 were a sitcom, the upbeat energy and relentless its hype might tempt you to call it It’s Always Sunny in Mountain View. (Except, of course, it’s not — especially in the foggy month of May. But hey, that didn’t stop Google from booking an outdoor amphitheater with full confidence.)

Still, a better comparison might be The Good Place — the show where our protagonists are assured they’ve reached paradise, even as small cracks begin to show. Everything looks perfect. Search is “improving.” It’s the future. What could go wrong?

Well, plenty.

Google has now rolled out AI Overviews to all U.S. search results — whether you asked for them or not. According to the company, we’re stepping into a smarter, more helpful future. But just like in The Good Place, we’re not supposed to ask too many questions.

For starters, don’t dwell on the fact that it hallucinations — those pesky inaccuracies and made-up facts — weren’t even mentioned at the event. Or that a rare live demo went off the rails when Google’s AI glasses failed to translate between two presenters. Remember how responsible AI was the star of Google I/O 2023? This year, it didn’t even get a cameo.

Then there’s the awkward contradiction of its environmental impact. Yes, Google’s data centres are consuming more energy than ever to power all this innovation. But don’t worry — they also claim their AI helps detect wildfires, so it’s apparently a net win. Just… don’t think too hard about it.

And those strikes in Hollywood over fears that it would replace creative jobs? In Google’s version of utopia, filmmakers and musicians are all-in on its — or at least, the handful that Google chose to spotlight.

Meanwhile, Back in the Real World…

Outside the I/O echo chamber, things look a bit different.

SEO experts are raising the alarm about declining search quality thanks to Overviews. According to internal memos revealed during the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google, which the government just won, the company might benefit when users don’t get the right answer the first time.

“If users have to search multiple times, Google can say more people are using it every day,” explains Lily Ray, VP of SEO Strategy at Amsive and author of a widely shared LinkedIn post titled Google it Overviews Have a Major Spam Problem. “But there’s no way to turn it off — that’s the kicker.”

In other words, Google has a 90% grip on the search market. They can afford to make the product worse in the short term if it props up investor excitement around it. It looks like progress, but under the hood? Not so much.

Ray puts it bluntly: “Google search results have kind of become the laughingstock of the internet.”

Despite Google’s public insistence that “users love its Overviews,” forums tell a different story. “How do I turn this off?” is a common refrain — only, many users are finding that you actually can’t.

This Might Actually Be… the Bad Place

Like The Good Place’s Eleanor Shellstrop (played by Kristen Bell), users are starting to realize: wait a second — this isn’t heaven after all.

The problem? Awareness doesn’t necessarily lead to change. As long as investors reward flashy AI presentations with stock boosts, there’s little reason for Google to prioritize quality or user satisfaction. That’s the split reality of 2025: one world for the marketers, another for the users.

But there’s a tiny silver lining. After I/O, Google’s stock dipped 1.5%, and it’s down 12% for the year. Maybe — maybe — that’s enough to spark some introspection.

Or maybe not. It might take the same stubborn optimism that powers every Google keynote to believe change is coming soon.

After all, in The Good Place, it took demon Michael (Ted Danson) 300 years to stop resetting Eleanor’s memory every time she figured out the truth.

So, just a few centuries to go until Google is really working for us again.

Until then, everything is fine. Probably.

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