Google’s experimental AI search feature titled “Search Generative Experience” has expanded to over 120 countries in its largest rollout yet, providing access to a majority of the global population. Along with it, the tech colossus has also added several updates to the AI search engine as it continues to augment SGE using learnings from Google Bard and Google’s other AI offerings. Google has attempted to make SGE more interactive to offer users the incentive to converse with the search engine and derive more pointed responses to their queries. These developments also come at a time when Google is invested heavily in rolling out customer-facing AI technologies as it works toward establishing its brand in the AI search engine space where OpenAI and Bing currently have an upper hand.
The earlier release of Google SGE was available only in the United States, Japan, and India. With the new update, Search Generative Experience will be accessible in numerous new regions and also in languages other than English. Since most users are more familiar with using AI chatbots that take a conversational approach, Google AI, too, has focused on maintaining the trend as opposed to its updates to Bard, which have primarily been centered around succinctness and relevance. As AI rivalries heat up in the market, consistent advancements and regular updates to Google’s AI search engine can be expected. The upcoming sections explore the new updates in greater detail.
An Overview of Search Generative Experience’s Key Updates
Google’s approach to AI tools remains focused on applications and user-focused tools.
Among the most important updates to Google SGE in the recent cycle involves the improvement that allows the underlying language model to tell whether a user’s question entails an offensive or inherently false premise. This is especially important for conversational chatbots and AI search engines since AI bias is a key challenge that creeps into these technologies and user-influenced harmful inputs can further skew the underlying model’s perspective. Google is working on these facets to further enhance the Search Generative Experience. This is primarily for the detection of questions that might contain such elements to ensure apt responses regardless of inherent biases or errors in user queries. Moreover, an additional option on SGE also allows users to view how the AI search engine arrived at a response by merely clicking on the “About This Result” feature that now appears beside generated responses.
Google has also upgraded the experimental AI search feature’s conversational nature, allowing users to instantly ask follow-ups from within the search results, as opposed to carrying out a completely new inquiry. The latest upgrades also focus on the nuances of language, with SGE results highlighting words that might have contextual or ambiguous meanings. This helps users better understand the idiosyncratic aspects of different languages and dialects, ultimately allowing Google to explore Search Generative Experience also as a potent AI translation tool. Presently, this feature will be limited to English-Spanish translations within the United States, with broader possibilities being slated for exploration in the future. Specialized jargon, medical terms, and connotations will also be highlighted keeping in line with Google’s broader healthcare AI ambitions, much like what it has already explored with language models like Med-PaLM 2.
The Significance of AI Search Engines: Google SGE’s Role
Advancements to AI search engines might just make them the conventional search protocol for the internet.
Google’s extended research and development into generative artificial intelligence has resulted in several advancements to its extant suite of search tools. While Google Bard and its constant stream of updates remain a key testing ground for the firm in both its competition with rivals as well as in ideating new AI applications, Search Generative Experience will remain highly significant for the firm. Since Google’s search retains the lion’s share of global search queries, the progressive onboarding of AI search will signal a groundbreaking shift in the way the world approaches the internet. Despite being experimental, Google’s Search Generative Experience has proven to be an effective tool that works well to summarize search results and provide a simplistic framework for users to deepen their search experience. While the firm had already been using AI to a considerable extent in its earlier search functionalities, the updates to SGE deepen Google’s commitment to using learnings from its chatbots and language model.
The addition of other languages like Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, and Indonesian further adds to the fact that Google is consistently pushing for broader access to SGE and remains committed to enhancing user experience. As competition with rival chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude 2 grows, Google is also intent on leveraging its already advantageous position in search engine tools to carve out a broad AI market in advance to avoid being outcompeted. While the firm continues to work on highly advanced language models like Gemini, consistent updates to extant offerings and producing consumer-facing AI tools become equally important. Google has been following through with these goals by releasing AI-based tools like NotebookLM and Codey. Regardless, Bard and SGE will continue to take center stage, since the search engine market is not an area Google would want to compromise on.
Will Google Permanently Switch to AI Search?
Key learnings from Bard and other LLM-based tools are incorporated into Google’s Search Generative Experience.
Google’s parent firm—Alphabet Inc.—had stated categorically in 2017, that Google will remain an AI-first company. The current set of advancements that have followed the boom in AI tools’ availability holds up to the same claim made over half a decade ago. Presently, Google intends to infuse responsible AI protocols and applications into every aspect of technology it offers its customers. As generative AI protocols become more common, as in the case of Google’s Search Generative Experience, the firm will continue to experiment and promote its AI offerings to ensure it retains a strong foothold in a highly competitive market. Moreover, these intense efforts will also act as the groundwork for building better AI infrastructure in the future.
FAQs
1. What is the purpose of Google Search Generative Experience?
Search Generative Experience is Google Search Labs’ experimental AI search feature that intends to summarize search results to enhance usability and provide users with a simplistic approach to helpful information from the internet.
2. Can you ask follow-up questions on Google’s Search Generative Experience?
The latest updates to Google SGE enable users to ask follow-up questions and simplify their search process on the platform.
3. Is Google SGE an AI search engine?
Google SGE is still in its experimental phases; however, it is being positioned as a rudimentary AI search engine that can summarize search results and point to legitimate sources on the web.