The browser company’s Arc, a minimalist browser, added an AI-powered summary function to its mobile app, Arc Search. A smart “pinching” motion presents a well-formatted summary with important information.
The function is interesting because it introduces a new way to connect with AI, but news publishers like us worry it will hurt traffic.
The defunct Instagram co-founders’ app Artifact and tech titans like Google’s Search Generative Experience’s web page summary function have also examined AI-powered summaries. Due to its unique user experience and gesture design, Arc’s pinch-to-summarize had social media users on Threads and X raving about its good-looking transition animation.
The new iOS version of Arc Search lets you touch a page and get an AI-powered summary with various points.
It’s interesting to squeeze a web page and see it fold into an origami style while the browser summarizes it. The transition is seamless. Modest tactile signals increase this impact.
Our testing shows that AI summaries typically fail. We corrected a previous piece to address the web myth that Google is terminating Gmail rather than only saying that it is abandoning its HTML view. We updated the report that Gmail shutting down rumors was incorrect, but Arc’s summary missed it.
Several more issues occurred. The Hindi recipe page summary function failed. We just saw prep time, cook time, and calorie count without any cooking instructions. Users have also complained that the summary option doesn’t work in other languages. (We’ll update if Arc responds to our request for language support for this functionality.)
An English-language chocolate cookie website included a great AI-powered overview of ingredients, recipe directions, and recommendations, but we had to scroll down to see them. Only ingredients and cook time were beneficial in the summary we produced without scrolling down.
The AI preview of the impending Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket season was wrong regarding a section of the schedule being issued after the Indian general elections.
Arc Search’s summary of Bluesky’s federation blog sounded robotic rather than informative and overlooked critical features like moderating.
The function provided good summaries for numerous articles and pages, although we had to double-check for missing items. As seen above, AI may ignore important information while summarizing, making these summaries unreliable unless the information is minimal. As this is Arc’s initial feature, it has limited room to include all the summary points.
AI-powered summary features also have issues elsewhere.
Perplexity and ChatGPT missed the Gmail hoax update in the preceding story. Gemini’s IPL schedule summary was worthless.
Arc’s strategy may undermine journalism and the web, according to numerous journalists this week, including The Platformer’s Casey Newton. In a Fast Company essay, Garbage Day newsletter publisher Ryan Broderick noted that AI-powered search firms are not considering how their strategy may affect websites and online contributors.
Publishers and news consumers may be concerned if AI ignores essential facts in a summary. The feature may not be reliable for factual information.
Arc Search’s summary function can’t incorporate the source’s link with these summaries, so some users may click to read the full article. (We contacted Arc about adding such a function and how it planned to enhance summaries over time.)
Arc also made its “Browse for Me” AI-powered search results shareable. To encourage clicks and further reading, the corporation made links on those pages clickable. In its latest edition, Arc implemented mobile browser incognito mode.
The utility of data for AI and content providers is debated. People may overlook minor errors or omit facts when AI features provide replies. It must be more precise and dependable for AI company appraisals and price tags.
The new AI-powered ‘pinch-to-summarize’ function in Arc browser is innovative but frequently fails.
