Over Overviews? New browser extension lets users hide Google’s AI search features

A new browser extension called “Bye Bye, Google AI” allows users to completely hide Google’s AI Overviews and other AI-powered search features from their results pages. Developed by Avram Piltch, former Editor-in-Chief of Tom’s Hardware, the tool addresses growing user frustration with AI-generated summaries that have reached over 2 billion monthly users but face criticism for accuracy issues and cluttering search results.

How it works: The extension uses CSS (web styling code) to block AI elements from appearing on Google Search, restoring a cleaner, more traditional search experience.
• Users can remove AI Overviews (summaries above web results), the AI Mode toggle, experimental content panels like “Discussions and forums” and “Shopping,” and optionally the “People also ask” section.
• The tool is available for both Chrome and Firefox, with open-source code published on GitHub.
• Rather than modifying Google’s backend systems, it simply makes AI features invisible to users.

Why this matters: Growing AI fatigue is driving some users away from Google toward alternatives like Perplexity or DuckDuckGo that emphasize non-AI curated results.
• Google’s AI Overviews have been controversial since launch, surfacing inaccurate or bizarre results despite tightened safeguards.
• The extension reflects a broader tension tech companies face between innovation and maintaining user satisfaction with established features.

The bigger picture: User sentiment remains split on AI integration in search, with some appreciating quick summaries while others say they “clutter results, bury publisher links, and break the browsing flow.”
• As Google continues doubling down on AI integration across Search, Chrome and Gemini, tools like this extension give users more control over their search experience.
• The development highlights the challenge of how to innovate without alienating users who made platforms popular in the first place.

Bottom line: Since Google isn’t dropping AI from Search, this browser extension lets users drop AI themselves, offering what may be the closest thing to the old Google experience until the company provides an official toggle option.