Google Unveils AI-Exclusive Search Engine in Experimental Release

The updated AI Mode offers detailed summaries, substituting conventional search results for subscribers of Google One AI Premium.

On Wednesday, Alphabet's Google introduced an experimental version of its search engine, replacing the conventional format of ten blue links with an AI-generated summary.

This new feature is available to subscribers of Google One AI Premium, which is priced at $19.99 per month, providing extra cloud storage and exclusive access to select AI tools.

Users can find the AI Mode option on the search results page for any query, placed alongside current options like Images and Maps.

Robby Stein, a vice president of product, stated that feedback from advanced users revealed a need for AI responses across a wider array of searches.

In response to this, Google has created AI Mode to deliver a more comprehensive AI-generated summary, including hyperlinks to referenced webpages, thereby replacing the typical ten links with a search bar for subsequent inquiries.

The AI Mode employs a customized version of Google's Gemini 2.0 model, which boasts improved reasoning skills tailored for handling intricate queries.

This initiative comes in light of increasing competition in the industry, particularly from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, which integrated search capabilities into its ChatGPT service last October.

Currently, Google provides AI Overviews as summaries that appear above standard hyperlinks for users in over 100 countries.

The company began adding advertisements to these AI Overviews in May 2023.

Alphabet's revenue, projected to reach $350 billion in 2024, is primarily supported by search-related advertising.

The company is facing challenges to its core business model as the demand for AI-driven solutions rises.

Ruth Porat, the investment chief, highlighted at the Reuters NEXT conference in December that integrating AI into search ranks among the company's highest priorities.

In a related legal matter, the educational technology company Chegg filed a lawsuit against Google in February, asserting that the use of AI previews diminishes demand for original content and disrupts publishers' competitive ability.