Google's AI Search Engine Misinterprets the Glucose Conversion Factor for Lactate

Abstract

How to cite this article: Vaithialingam B. Google's AI Search Engine Misinterprets the Glucose Conversion Factor for Lactate. Indian J Crit Care Med 2025;29(10):892–893.

Dear Editor,

I read with great interest the newly published article, in which the author mentioned the artificial intelligence (AI)-derived Google search error in the conversion of lactate from mg/dL to mmol/L.¹ I would like to appreciate the author for his keen observations and reporting. However, I would like to highlight a few additional points regarding the AI-derived Google search error.

Google AI executes searches using two “models”: “AI Overview” and “AI Mode”. The “AI Overview” gives a quick, superficial overview of the search queries, whilst the “AI Mode” allows for more in-depth analysis and comparison with more accuracy. Both of these Google models use the “query fan-out” search approach, in which search queries are divided into many subtopics.² The Google AI tool searches various internet databases, websites, and tools based on the multiple subtopics selected. Along with the final search results, the relevant references are displayed in the sidebar. The author used the Google search query “How to convert lactate in mg/dL to mmol/L?” and the Google AI-segmented subtopics for the aforementioned query include “lactate”, “conversion”, and “mg/dL to mmol/L”. Lactate (conversion factor = mg/dL divided by 9) and glucose (mg/dL divided by 18) are the two commonly used parameters for which “mg/dL to mmol/L” conversion is used. It's important to note that the screenshot shared by the author with the AI search query showed the blood glucose conversion link as a reference in the sidebar. The author of the current article also had a similar experience in the past in which the Google AI search displayed the wrong conversion factor for lactate, which also included the blood glucose conversion link as a reference in the sidebar (Fig. 1A). Hence, the use of the segmented subtopic “mg/dL to mmol/L” by the Google AI search engine interpreted the blood glucose conversion factor and displayed it wrongly for the lactate conversion in the final result. To the best of my knowledge, there is no online tool or website that mentions a lactate conversion factor of 18. Also, following the online publication of the author's article, the Google AI search engine has started showing the correct lactate conversion factor with the author's article as the preferred reference without the inclusion of the blood glucose conversion factor link as a reference (Fig. 1B).

Figs 1A and B.

(A) Google AI search showing the wrong conversion factor for lactate with the blood glucose conversion factor link as a reference; (B) Google AI search showing the correct lactate conversion factor without the blood glucose conversion factor link as a reference following the publication of the author's article

In conclusion, the Google AI search engine provides dynamic search results, and the use of the blood glucose conversion factor for lactate is a serious error. Clinicians must manually verify the authenticity of the Google AI search engine results.

Orcid

Balaji Vaithialingam https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6332-3251