Google announced on Tuesday its plans to implement AI-generated responses for online searches, marking one of the most significant updates to its top-ranked search engine in a quarter of a century.
“I’m excited to announce that we will begin launching this fully revamped experience, ‘AI overviews,’ to everyone in the US this week,” Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said at an event in California.
The transformation is expected to expand to additional nations shortly, he mentioned, providing access to over a billion individuals. Google’s search results will showcase an AI synopsis at the beginning of the page before displaying the usual list of links.
The AI snippets produced by Google’s Gemini technology will provide concise summaries of the content discovered on the web along with links to the sources that provided the information.
“You can ask whatever’s on your mind or whatever you need to get done – from researching to planning to brainstorming – and Google will take care of the legwork,” said Google Search team boss Liz Reid.
Google is facing increasing competition from AI-powered search engines such as Perplexity, as well as rumors of OpenAI developing its own AI search tool.
AI chat searches have become available on various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, offering users a streamlined experience compared to traditional search results. Content creators and small publishers are concerned that users may no longer visit websites directly for information.
According to a forecast by research firm Gartner, the utilization of AI bots is expected to cause a decline of 25 percent in web traffic from search engines by 2026.
In response to this prediction, Google has refuted any potential impact on its business model, which heavily relies on generating revenue through advertising sales from its search engine.
“We’ve found that with AI Overviews, people use Search more, and are more satisfied with their results,” Reid said.
“You can ask your most complex questions, with all the nuances and caveats you have in mind, all in one go.”
The company said such generative AI tools are making life easier for users, whether they’re looking for a yoga studio open on Sundays, planning a trip or preparing a meal with special dietary requirements.
The company will also soon start testing applying AI to searches based on video content as the query source, according to Reid.
As an example, this would allow users to ask Google to diagnose a broken appliance by filming it with a smartphone and get tips for getting it fixed.
Google also provided a look at Project Astra, which is devoted to building digital assistants to aid with tasks big or small.
“For a long time we wanted to build a universal AI agent that can be truly helpful in everyday life,” said Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis.
“It’s easy to envisage a future where you can have an expert assistant by your side through your phone or new exciting form factors like glasses.”
AI agent capabilities will debut in Google products such as the Gemini app or Assistant later this year, according to Hassabis.
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