Google starts embedding AI chatbot into search

Google is introducing a new artificial intelligence (AI) mode that more firmly embeds chatbot capabilities into its search engine, aiming to give users the experience of having a conversation with an expert.

The “AI Mode” was made available in the US on Tuesday, appearing as an option in Google’s search bar.

The change, unveiled at the company’s annual developers conference in Mountain View, California, is part of the tech giant’s push to remain competitive against ChatGPT and other AI services, which threaten to erode Google’s dominance of online search.

The company also announced plans for its own augmented reality glasses and said it planned to offer a subscription AI tool.

Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google-parent Alphabet, said the incorporation of the company’s Gemini chatbot into its search signalled a “new phase of the AI platform shift”.

“With more advanced reasoning, you can ask AI both longer and more complex queries,” Pichai told the audience.

The company’s foray into AI-powered glasses comes more than a decade after it pioneered smart glasses with its “Google Glasses”, which ultimately flopped.

The new Google glasses are being developed with eyeglass retailers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster and will feature a camera, microphone, and speakers.

With the renewed effort, Google hopes to compete against Meta’s AI-powered glasses made with Ray-Ban.

The company said it expected to start building the new product later this year.

Leo Gebbie, principal analyst and director for the Americas at CCS Insight, said Google had been expected to wrap AI more tightly into its products.

He said he thought the chatbot would help minimise the number of web pages that users must sift through, while also allowing people to ask more complicated queries.

“For the end user, this should mean less time spent browsing the web itself, and more time spent talking with Google’s AI tools,” he said.

Any updates that Google makes to search are “of critical importance,” added Gebbie, since the search business contributes the vast majority of Google’s revenues.

The announcements also come as the company fights a court battle in the US over potential changes to its business after a judge ruled it had a monopoly in search.

Google has had mixed success in its recent attempts to incorporate more AI into its services.

Its AI Overviews feature, unveiled by Google at its developers conference last year, offers AI-generated summaries that currently appear at the top of search results.

It initially generated ridicule from users who posted some of the odd responses they received, as when it advised one user that non-toxic glue could help make cheese stick to pizza.

Another widely circulated response stated that geologists recommend humans eat one rock each day.

A Google spokesperson said at the time that these were “isolated examples.”

Mr Pichai said on Tuesday that AI Overviews now gets 1.5 billion uses per month in more than 200 countries and territories.

In its biggest markets – the US and India – AI Overviews drive more than 10% of growth in the types of queries that show them, Pichai said.

“It’s one of the most successful launches in search in the past decade,” he added.