Google LLC has unveiled two new artificial intelligence features for its search engine, designed to help users find information more quickly and accurately. The latest updates include an improved version of AI Overviews and a more advanced AI Mode, both powered by Google’s cutting-edge Gemini 2.0 language models.
AI Overviews, first introduced last May, generates natural language responses to user queries, appearing above traditional search results. Google is now upgrading this feature with its Gemini 2.0 series of large language models, promising more precise and reliable results.
The company has not specified which exact model AI Overviews will use. However, the most advanced Gemini 2.0 Pro supports up to 2 million tokens per prompt and excels at complex reasoning, coding, and general knowledge tasks. The series also includes Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite, a more efficient version that delivers improved response quality while maintaining cost-effectiveness.
Initially, AI Overviews with Gemini 2.0 will be available to U.S. users for coding and advanced math queries, as well as multimodal searches that involve multiple input types. Google expects the upgraded AI to provide faster, higher-quality responses and display AI-generated results more frequently for these types of searches.
“With Gemini 2.0’s advanced capabilities, we provide faster and higher quality responses and show AI Overviews more often for these types of queries,” said Robby Stein, vice president of product for Google Search.
Alongside AI Overviews, Google introduced AI Mode, a more advanced AI-powered search experience designed to handle complex queries. This feature is currently available through Search Labs, Google’s beta testing program, and is limited to subscribers of Google One AI Premium.
AI Mode leverages a custom version of Gemini 2.0 and employs a technique called query fan-out, where multiple searches are performed simultaneously before merging the results into a comprehensive answer. Responses can span multiple paragraphs and incorporate information from various sources, including Google’s Knowledge Graph, which contains factual data such as sports scores, stock prices, and weather updates. Additionally, AI Mode integrates knowledge about billions of products to enhance shopping-related queries.
During its initial testing phase, Google will collect user feedback to refine AI Mode’s accuracy and interface. The company has already outlined plans for future enhancements, including more visual elements like images and videos, improved formatting, and better access to helpful web content.
“We’re already working on new capabilities and updates, like adding more visual responses with images and video, richer formatting, new ways to get to helpful web content, and much more,” Stein added.
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