Browser company Arc, a browser focused on a clean web experience, has introduced a new feature to its mobile app Arc Search that uses AI to summarize web pages. This feature includes a clever “pinch” gesture that displays a well-formatted summary with key points.
This feature is gaining traction because it presents new dynamics for interacting with AI, but there are also concerns that it could impact traffic to news publishers like us.
We've also seen other efforts by big tech companies to consider AI-powered summarization, such as Artifact, the now-shuttered app from Instagram's co-founders, and the web page summarization feature in Google's Search Generative Experience.But thanks to its unique user experience and gestural design, Arc's pinch-to-summary works well with threads and X I'm talking because the transition animations are cool.
If you're using a newer version of Arc Search on iOS, pinch on a page to see an AI-powered summary of the various points in your browser.
This gesture is cool to use and look at. When you pinch a web page, the browser folds it origami-style while generating an overview, creating a smooth transition effect. And this effect is made all the more satisfying thanks to subtle tactile cues.
However, in our tests, AI briefs themselves often miss the point. For example, we've updated older articles to address online misinformation such as: When Google discontinues Gmail, it's not just that the company is discontinuing Gmail's basic HTML view. Arc's summary didn't include the important part that rumors about Gmail shutting down are false, but we've added it above the article.
Image credits: Screenshot by TechCrunch
There were some other issues as well. When I tried to summarize the recipe page in Hindi, the feature did not work. There were no details about actually making the dish, just points like prep time, cooking time, and calorie count. Other users have also noted that the overview feature doesn't work well. other languages. (We have reached out to Arc about language support for this feature and will update with additional information if we hear back.)
The English page for Baking Chocolate Cookies had a neat AI-powered overview with ingredients, recipe description, and additional tips, but to include these important points, please see below. I had to scroll. If I generated the summary without scrolling down, I would just get the ingredients and cooking time as useful points in the summary.
While reading an article about the schedule of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament, AI Overview missed the point that part of the schedule will be announced after the dates for the Indian general elections are announced. Ta.
When Arc Search attempted to summarize Bluesky's blog about federation, the text felt more robotic than descriptive, and missed several points that might be important to users, such as moderation.
Although this feature produced useful summaries for many articles and pages, I felt I needed to double-check to see if I was missing anything. As seen in the example above, AI may miss important information during summarization, so it is difficult to rely completely on these summaries unless the importance of the information is trivial. Naturally, this is the first iteration of Arc's functionality, and there is also limited space for all the summary points.
That said, there are issues with AI-powered summarization elsewhere as well.
Both Perplexity and ChatGPT missed the latest information about the Gmail hoax in the article above. And Gemini provided us with a useless summary of her article on IPL schedule.
Image credits: gemini
There are concerns that Ark's approach could also be harmful to journalism, with several journalists raising the issue this week., That includes The Platformer's Casey Newton, who spoke about how Arc's approach could harm journalism and the web as a whole. Ryan Broderick, who publishes The Garbage Day newsletter, wrote in a column for Fast Company that the companies building AI-powered search are the ones who believe their approach will help his website and the people who contribute to it. He pointed out that they did not consider how this would affect their motivation.
These are legitimate concerns for publishers as well as news consumers. Because if the AI misses important points in the summary, you may not be able to trust its capabilities as accurate information.
At this time, Arc Search's summaries feature does not allow you to embed source links to share these summaries. At least some people might click and read the entire article. (We asked Arc about the possibility of introducing features like this and how they plan to improve the quality of summaries over time.)
Additionally, Arc has updated its AI-powered “Browse for me” search to allow users to share the pages generated as a result. Additionally, the company made links within those pages clickable, allowing people to follow the link or read more. Arc also added incognito mode to its mobile browser in a recent update.
There is a larger conversation about the value of data to AI and returning that value to content creators. Many people may skim over small mistakes or leave out details when the AI feature retrieves the answer. However, the price tags and valuations that AI companies seek need to be more accurate and reliable.