(Credit: Yuki Lawmura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Another day, another AI change from Google. Now, Google Discover is the latest service to get AI features with the company testing story summaries that look similar to how AI Overviews now appear at the top of search results.
Spotted by 9to5Google, the new feature is in testing for select users as PCMag was unable to replicate the functionality. AndellDam on X also found similar testing back in June, so this has been in the works for a while.
The AI-generated overviews within Discover appear in the feed alongside normal editorial highlights. The main test replaces the publication's logo and name from the top left of the Discover card, and instead includes the icons of multiple sources. It uses the word “Trending" to distinguish these overviews from articles.
These summaries are pulling together information from multiple publications and online resources. It’s then followed by three lines of AI-generated text using information from those sources.
There’s also a “See more” button to show an extra three lines of text. The main editorial source is then included as the main link for you to click through to learn more.
In an example found by 9to5Google, the AI summary used a blog post from the NASA website as its main source. That's where the main image and headline were taken from in this example, too.
You can open up all of the sources included if you press on the "More" button within the card. There's also a disclaimer that says, "Generated with AI, which can make mistakes," but this doesn't show until you've pressed "See more."
Google has previously tried to summarize topics with multiple sources, but this is the first time it has implemented AI to do it. The previous feature grouped together three articles on the same topic into boxes called "Headlines." The idea was to give you access to three competing sources, which is especially helpful to give you alternative opinions around political content.
The test outlined above isn't Google's only experiment with AI in Discover. AndellDam also found a version in testing that gave an AI summary of a single article, rather than grouping together multiple sources. To do this, Google has moved the publication name to the bottom of the card and made the headline much smaller.
These tests appear on both the Android and iOS versions of Discover. There’s no sign of the feature coming to desktop, which is a relatively new addition to Chrome.
Elsewhere in Google Discover, there's also an experiment for a new Save icon to help you keep track of sources to return to later. There's now a small bookmark icon in these tests sitting between the overflow menu and the heart. Everything you’ve saved through this tool will then be available within the Activity section.