Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced on Wednesday at Google’s I/O conference that an expanded artificial intelligence presence in several of Google’s products will be implemented this year, including a new look and feel for the company’s search engine.
The company has already implemented different types of AI in past years such as in Gmail’s generated short responses and predictive text capabilities. Launching over the summer, Google Photos will have not only have Magic Eraser, to remove unwanted distractions easily, but Magic Editor, to add and move things for the perfect picture.
“Our ability to make AI helpful for everyone relies on continuously advancing our foundation models,” Pichai said, during the conference.
Google is calling the new AI operated search engine “Search Generative Experience” or SGE. By giving AI the ability to generate longer, more detailed responses to questions, it will synthesize information found across the internet — essentially saving the user time and energy with several different searches.
What’s different about the new Google Search?
While the design for the search engine side of Google will not be anything out of Google’s normal branding, here are some notable changes that users should expect with the new technology that Washington Post journalist Geoffrey A. Fowler noticed when he tested it out:
- It isn’t humanlike and doesn’t use personal pronouns to refer to itself. Snapchat’s AI has seen some internet attention with its new AI chatbot, causing concern among some users who call it “terrifying,” per Business Insider. Google is trying to avoid that response entirely by keeping the question of having a personality out of the equation.
- AI won’t replace simple Google searches. Simple questions that have simple answers won’t receive an AI generated report of synthesized information. This is reserved only for more specific searches — like the example Fowler used, of whether Bryce Canyon or Arches National Park is better for a family of four with a dog.
- It cites its sources. As the AI pools together information, it will show where it pulled the information from and what sources it used, all will be displayed on the sidebar and below the AI generated results.
- It’s not always right. Fowler said that if you want a good chocolate chip cookie recipe, SGE won’t be able to help — it forgot the chocolate chips in the recipe it created for Fowler. That goes to show that AI doesn’t always answer correctly and is still it its testing stages.
Can I try the new Google Search now?
Google plans to allow a certain number of testers that sign up to use SGE before releasing it to the general public later this year, reported the Post. It will only be tested in the United States for now, but will eventually make it to more than 4 billion users worldwide.