The company's I/O conference also revealed a range of new features and models, including Ask Photos, a feature in Google Photos that helps users find specific images by talking to the chatbot in natural language, and Gemini, a new model that is lighter and less expensive than the Pro version. Despite the potential benefits of these new features, there are concerns about the implications for the web, with Google's move towards AI search seen as a threat to businesses that rely on web search for discovery and funding.
Key takeaways:
- Google's AI-powered search results, called Search Generative Experience, are set to be available to all users in the United States soon and by the end of 2024, they will appear at the top of results for 1 billion users.
- Google's new approach is to let Google do the Googling for users, identifying browsing the web as a chore and something better left to a bot.
- Web publishers are concerned about the implications of AI search, as it could potentially lead to significant losses in traffic and revenue. Some estimates suggest traffic to the web from search engines could fall 25 percent by 2026.
- Despite the potential disruption, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has downplayed the impact, stating that the company is working on approaches that will generate traffic and that he believes AI overviews will not disrupt the company's business or that of publishers.