Am I understanding this correctly? The podcaster is asking why the Google search doesn't give a chatbot answer to "best Chromebook"? Don't get me wrong, I have no shortage of criticisms for Google search. I just don't understand what would be controversial about not providing a chatbot response by default for this question. A hypothetical answer would require comparative and evaluative language, which I can't blame them for the wanting to steer clear.
The podcaster is effectively asking if the AI Overview about Chromebooks coming up first on the screen above the actual answer the user is looking for is the intended direction of Google Search UX with it's new AI "improvements".
Sundar states that the user must opt into an AI Overview, but this isn't true, it basically automatically opens the overview for you.
When pressed about whether this design is a WIP or the intended goal, Sundar refuses to answer directly, for obvious reasons. It's a bad look either way. Either they did intend for this terrible UX or they clearly hurriedly pushed out a poorly designed/placed AI product to their search engine in the most prominent location possible. Which is not really a good thing when Googles most well known product is their search engine.
Either answer basically boils down to prioritizing AI over actual product quality.
