The Japan Times - Google ramps up AI features in search engine

CEO Sundar Pichai, speaking at the company's annual developers event, said that Google's search engine would feature a new AI mode, as he boasted that "decades of research" were reaching fruition with the new technology.

The search engine's new AI mode goes further than the already launched AI Overviews which display answers to queries from the company's generative AI powers, above the traditional blue links to websites and ads.

"New AI mode is a total reimagining of search with more advanced reasoning," said Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, kicking off the tech giant's annual developer's conference in Silicon Valley.

"You can ask longer and more complex queries... and you can go further with follow up questions."

Google head of search Liz Reid described the freshly unveiled AI mode, which is now available in the US, as a powerful tool with advanced reasoning, multi-modality, and the ability for users to dive deeper into searches.

"It searches across the entire web, going way deeper than the traditional search," she said.

Since Google debuted Generative AI Overviews in search results at its developers conference a year ago, it has grown to more than 1.5 billion users in a wide array of countries, according to Pichai.

"That means Google search is bringing Gen AI to more people than any other product in the world," Pichai said.

"As people use AI Overviews, they're increasingly happier with their results and they search more often in our biggest markets, like the US and India."

Analysts have expressed concerns that shifting away from pages of "blue links" to AI-generated summaries in Google search would mean fewer opportunities to serve up money-making ads at the heart of the company's business model.

This has also caused alarm among website publishers, such as news organizations or Wikipedia, who face a massive drop in traffic with the potential demise of Google search links that have been the main gateway to the internet for the past two decades.

Fueling those concerns, Apple executive Eddy Cue testified in federal court recently that Google's search traffic on Apple devices declined in April for the first time in over two decades.

Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, told the Washington antitrust trial that Google was losing ground to AI alternatives like ChatGPT and Perplexity, sending Google's shares plummeting.

Investors were also unsettled when Cue added that Apple might soon offer AI alternatives as default search options on its devices, heightening concerns that Google's advertising revenue could face serious threats from AI competitors.

The testimony came during a pivotal trial where a federal judge could decide that Google needs to sell off key businesses in order to satisfy a previous ruling that its search engine is an illegal monopoly.

- 'Ultra' -

At its annual developers conference, Google nurtures relationships with creators of apps, platforms or online services, hoping to keep them inspired to sync with the tech firm's offerings.

The gathering this year spotlighted AI innovations Google is putting into people's hands as well as some still being crafted by researchers.

That work included AI being used for real-time speech translation, trying on clothes virtually using one's own photos, and having the technology watch for desired items to be attractively priced in order to buy them at the right time.

In the latest buzz about the technology, AI can act as an "agent" tending to online tasks instead of humans.

Google is starting to bring agent capabilities to Chrome and the Gemini AI app, launching first to those paying for subscriptions, according to executives.

"All of this will keep getting better," Pichai said.

"It's made the Web itself more exciting; people are engaging a lot more across the board."

Google announced that its most advanced AI tools would be accessible in an "Ultra" subscription tier costing $250 monthly.

K.Yoshida--JT