Google AI chatbot ushers in a new era for search

Flagship product gets interactive features

- TRIPP MICKLE

Google became the gateway to the internet by perfecting its search engine. For two decades, it surfaced 10 blue links that gave people access to the information they were looking for.

But after a quarter century, the tech giant is betting that the future of search will be artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, Google said it was introducing a new feature in its search engine called AI Mode. The tool will function like a chatbot, allowing people to start a query, ask follow-up questions and use the company’s AI system to deliver comprehensive answers.

"It's a total reimagining of search,” said Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google, in a news briefing ahead of the company’s annual conference for software developers. In tests of the feature, he said people dramatically “changed the nature of how they are interacting with search.”

The new feature headlined a list of new AI abilities, including more personalised and automated email replies and a shopping tool to automatically purchase clothing after it’s put on sale.

With the introduction of AI Mode, Google is essentially trying to disrupt its traditional search business before upstart AI competitors can disrupt it. The search giant has been nervous about that possibility since declaring a “code red” two years ago after the arrival of ChatGPT, a chatbot from OpenAI that ignited a race to add generative Al into tech products.

But Google has been hesitant to fully embrace AI because it has so much to lose. The company’s search business generated nearly $200 billion last year, more than half of its total sales. And the bedrock of that business has been how it has reliably provided people with the best answers to questions.

Though they are a technical leap, AI systems have one big shortcoming: They are prone to giving incorrect answers, like recommending people eat rocks, which one of Google’s AI systems did last year.