Google is expanding AI Overviews to more users and is giving it a Gemini 2.0 upgrade, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.
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 and it won't require users to sign in for it to work.
Along with the update to AI Overviews, Google is also launching a new experiment in Search called AI Mode. For those who get past the waitlist, 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.
Google AI Mode
Google AI Mode in Search Google
Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The update to AI Overviews and the introduction of AI Mode comes as Google is integrating more AI products across its portfolio. From Gmail to Pixel, pretty much every product Google touches is getting an AI twist. Heck, Google is even using AI to summarize YouTube comments sections.
Search is Google's most valuable product, so when the company announced AI would be coming to the thing that billions of people use daily, there were concerns. At launch, AI Overviews was making headline-grabbing errors, like suggesting people add glue to pizza. A year later, users are still reporting 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 in 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.