Google said in a blog post on Wednesday that it is expanding AI Overviews to more users in the US and upgrading it to Gemini 2.0.
AI Overviews are Google’s function in Search that uses AI to automatically generate answers to queries with videos and citations, before the usual blue links. Now, it’ll work on more types of queries, such as coding and advanced math equations and won’t require users to sign in for it to work. Visually, everything will look the same.
Along with the update to AI Overviews, Google is launching a new experiment in Search called AI Mode. For those who get past the wait list, AI Mode will sit along the top bar on your Google Search query, alongside Maps, Images and Shopping. AI Mode looks to work similarly to Google Gemini, the company’s AI chatbot that competes with ChatGPT, all within Search. AI Mode uses a custom model that integrates Gemini 2.0 with Search’s core ranking system, according to Google.
Google referred to its blog post when asked for comment.
The update to AI Overviews and the introduction of AI Mode come as Google integrates more AI products across its portfolio. Almost every product Google touches from Gmail to Pixel gets an AI twist. Heck, Google is even using AI to summarize YouTube comment sections.
Search is Google’s most valuable product, so there were concerns when the company announced AI would be coming to the thing billions of people use daily. AI Overviews made headline-grabbing errors at launch, suggesting people add glue to pizza. A year later, users still report AI Overviews giving bizarre answers and getting things blatantly wrong. It has even prompted some to find ways to configure Google Search to remove AI Overviews. Despite the blunder, AI Overviews haven’t affected the company’s stock price, and Google says AI Mode is a response to user demand.
It seems that Google will continue throwing more fuel into the AI engine as the company will reportedly launch a new on-device AI assistant named Pixie for its upcoming Pixel 10 suite of devices.
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