(Credit: Google)
Google is intensifying its push for AI-generated search content with an update to AI Overviews and an experimental "AI Mode" that morphs the entire search engine into a chatbot.
AI Overviews are now powered by Gemini 2.0, which adds advanced coding and math skills, as well as the ability to handle "multimodal" queries—such as photo queries in addition to basic text.
The main difference between Google's AI Overviews and a chatbot like ChatGPT is that users cannot ask AI Overviews follow-up questions. They have to enter a new search to get more information, which may push them to use ChatGPT (which now has its own search-focused experience), Google's own Gemini chatbot, or something like Perplexity.
So, Google is now testing an "AI Mode" version of its search engine that makes it purely conversational—no blue links below. Google is inviting Google One AI Premium subscribers to try it as a limited, opt-in experience in Labs. They will see a new "AI Mode" option at the top of the search engine, near Images and Maps.
The experience is built on a "custom version of Gemini 2.0" and offers "more breadth and depth of information than a traditional search on Google." Users will also have "the ability to go further with follow-up questions" without having to start a new search. AI Mode will still surface web links, though presumably fewer of them. Citing sources is crucial for much-needed fact-checking and for allowing users to dig into the primary source material on their own.
This may be an inroad for Google to integrate Gemini into its core search product rather than keeping it as a standalone product. Google may be incentivized not to turn its entire search engine into a chatbot, which limits the quantity and variety of information available to a user and will perhaps still keep traditional search as an option. Its AI models also still struggle with accuracy and cannot handle all types of questions.
"We aim to show an AI-powered response as much as possible, but in cases where we don’t have high confidence in helpfulness and quality, the response will be a set of web search results," Google says. "As with any early-stage AI product, we won’t always get it right."