You Might Want to Skip Tripadvisor's AI Summaries

AI that's supposed to make Tripadvisor easier to use may also be smoothing over some travelers' criticisms, a new investigation suggests. UK consumer group Which? found AI-written hotel summaries on Tripadvisor that cast properties in a largely positive light despite reviews alleging raw chicken, vermin near buffets, mass illness, no water for showering, and even sexual harassment by staff. The Guardian reports one Cape Verde resort was described by the AI as having "diverse restaurants" that have garnered "rave reviews"; the Which? report notes the individual reviews mention food poisoning 102 times.

Tripadvisor described its AI summaries as a "product in development" and argued the summaries are effective: they "help travelers quickly understand the breadth of feedback while making it easy to explore the underlying reviews in full." The company added that AI write-ups are automatically suppressed when users report the most serious safety incidents, such as death or drugging. For now, Which? recommends site users "scroll past these summaries and look at guest reviews, particularly one-star ratings, and at reviews on other sites, to make sure their next stay is a safe one." Its report did find Google's AI summaries of travel spots tended to be more accurate.