You knew it was coming: Google begins testing AI-only search results
arstechnica.com
AI Mode could be the future of Google, but it’s currently just an experiment.

Google has become so integral to online navigation that its name became a verb, meaning “to find things on the Internet.” Soon, Google might just tell you what’s on the Internet instead of showing you. The company has announced an expansion of its AI search features, powered by Gemini 2.0. Everyone will soon see more AI Overviews at the top of the results page, but Google is also testing a more substantial change in the form of AI Mode. This version of Google won’t show you the 10 blue links at all—Gemini completely takes over the results in AI Mode.

This marks the debut of Gemini 2.0 in Google search. Google announced the first Gemini 2.0 models in December 2024, beginning with the streamlined Gemini 2.0 Flash. The heavier versions of Gemini 2.0 are still in testing, but Google says it has tuned AI Overviews with this model to offer help with harder questions in the areas of math, coding, and multimodal queries.

With this update, you will begin seeing AI Overviews on more results pages, and minors with Google accounts will see AI results for the first time. In fact, even logged out users will see AI Overviews soon. This is a big change, but it’s only the start of Google’s plans for AI search.

Gemini 2.0 also powers the new AI Mode for search. It’s launching as an opt-in feature via Google’s Search Labs, offering a totally new alternative to search as we know it. This custom version of the Gemini large language model (LLM) skips the standard web links that have been part of every Google search thus far.

  • octopus_ink@slrpnk.netEnglish
    0·
    14 days ago

    Does EVERY axis in life have to be fucked up at the same time?

    Can we have one thing that is just doing ok?

    Government - fucked.

    Education - fucked.

    Healthcare - fucked.

    Environment - fucked.

    Housing - fucked.

    Societal and Social Cohesion - fucked.

    Wealth Inequality - fucked.

    Personal Technological Autonomy - fucked, and under continuous attack.

    Technological Enshittification - Running like gangbusters. So really - fucked.

    Damn, someone give me some kind of ladder to climb out of this pit of despair.

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        16 days ago

        They also flow from corruption (regulatory capture/failure to enforce anti-trust and other consumer-protection law). It’s hard to say whether that is itself a cause or result of wealth inequality, though.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          16 days ago

          Nintendo, when chasing developers of emulators and modders, uses regulatory mechanisms. IP is such a mechanism initially. Intended to protect the little guy from big bad corporations.

          It’s hard to say whether that is itself a cause or result of wealth inequality, though.

          It’s both of course. Only time flows in one direction and never the other.

  • Rooty@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    15 days ago

    I’m decrepit enough to remember pre-Google web, with competing search engines. Bring back webrings!

      • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        14 days ago

        The fact that Ask Jeeves isn’t an AI-only search engine is just beyond me. It was laughable that someone thought to personify a search engine 25 years ago, but now is pretty much the right time for that.

  • Majorllama@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    Would this be the same AI that spits out incorrect summarys or just flat out gets data incorrect constantly? What could possibly go wrong by making that the ONLY way to look for things going forward. Fucking morons.

  • Chris@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    Hmm, in theory I don’t have a problem with an AI telling me the answer to my question or whatever I’m searching for - but this isn’t a web search. If I’m actually searching for a particular page or context, then I want to be able to do that.

    These are two entirely different things, and if Google goes down this route they aren’t a search engine anymore - they are an LLM provider.

    • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      15 days ago

      fascists really love LLM’s. like ridiculously in love with them. it’s where all their ‘art’ comes from. it’s made of the shallow aesthetics with no interiority they love so much. plus it doesn’t really require articulating your desires much, or having artists.

      • andros_rex@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        15 days ago

        To borrow Alex Jones’ term - it is information warfare. Train people to accept the outputs of LLMs, attack media literacy (in conjunction with the fact that public schools in the US spent ten years not teaching children how to read), and hide actual sources.

        You can have your LLM trained to weasel around the fact that the chattel slavery of black Americans was the primary cause of the Civil War, or falsely represent science surrounding gender and sexuality (they’re explicitly tuning Grok on this).

        You don’t have to worry about subversive messages on war or women in your “AI” generated “Ghibhli” film. Have all the fun space faring of Star Wars, without the prequel geopolitics everyone hated until they saw it happen.

        • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          0·
          14 days ago

          yeah. letting silicon valley build the sword with which to slay the dragon Truth was really some ‘neon genesis evangellion’ grade bullshit. posadism hasn’t failed in this timeline, though. fingers crossed.