The weirdest assumption in this thread is that Google wants the AI answer to be correct.

Correct enough to keep you from leaving the page, sure. But “truth” was never the product. The product is making you pay for SEO

> The product is making you pay for SEO

I'm not sure that tracks, most SEO is by 3rd parties. The product is ad views, they stopped caring about non-ad results a long time ago. I think they do care about the reputation of their model, this could actually make a difference.