Google begins testing AI Mode while rolling out Gemini 2.0 AI Overviews

Google AI Mode is now here and available within Google Search Labs; it is a new search mode that goes beyond AI Overviews with a more immersive Google Search AI interface that provides “more advanced reasoning, thinking and multimodal capabilities,” Google announced.

Google also announced that AI Overviews are now powered by Gemini 2.0 and that AI Overviews are now available for teenagers, a login is not required for access to these AI answers anymore.

AI Mode

AI Mode is a new tab within Google Search, right now only for those accepted into the Google Search Labs experiment, that brings you into a more AI-like interface. Google said AI Mode “is particularly helpful for queries where further exploration, reasoning, or comparisons are needed.” AI Mode lets you explore a topic and get comprehensive AI-based answers without you needing to do those comparisons and analyses yourself. We saw rumors of this news and it is finally officially here, for some of you.

AI Mode uses a “query fan-out” technique that issues multiple related searches concurrently across subtopics and multiple data sources and then brings those results together to provide a response. Google said using this query fan-out method provides searchers with a “more breadth and depth of information than a traditional search on Google.”

AI Mode supports searching with text, voice, and images through its multimodal capabilities. Plus, AI Mode offers the conversational follow-up questions like you’ve seen in AI Overviews and Gemini.

What AI Mode looks like. Here is a video of AI mode in action on desktop search:

Here is a similar example but on mobile search:

How to access AI Mode. Google AI Mode again is currently only available with Labs access. In this case, Google will start accepting users who are Google One AI Premium subscribers first and then add more users later.

• Go to Google Search Labs and sign up for the experiment.

Once you again access then you should be able to access AI Mode – here is how:

• Go to www.google.com, enter a question in the Search bar, and tap the “AI Mode” tab below the Search bar.
• Go directly to the AI Mode tab on Google Search at: google.com/aimode.
• In the Google app, tap the AI Mode icon below the Search bar on the home screen.

Links in AI mode. Google told us, “like with AI Overviews, AI Mode prominently surfaces relevant links to help people find web pages and content they may not have discovered before.” And often, Google will show a different set of links and responses in AI Mode compared to what you might get in AI Overviews.

“You can ask anything on your mind and get a helpful AI-powered response with the ability to go further with follow-up questions and helpful web links,” Google added.

Google told us they use training models to “intelligently determine when and how to link and best present information so it’s most useful and actionable.” Then, the “teaching the model to decide when to include hyperlinks in the response if it’s likely that the user may want to take action or finish a task on a website (e.g. booking tickets). Or deciding when to prioritize visual information if the user’s question could benefit from an image or video (e.g. how-to queries).”

Search Console. I asked if Google will show this data within Google Search Console or maybe, and we are all praying for it, let us filter these responses in the Search Console performance reports. But I received the typical PR answer from Google. Google said, “We currently don’t have anything to share about the reporting tools for this experiment, but will let you know if that changes.”

I wish I had more to share here, and I know I’ve been on this topic since Google launched featured snippets over a decade ago, but hey, I won’t stop asking Google about this.

AI Mode safety questions. As you may expect, Google is launching this with a bit of caution and a caveat that his is a new feature, only available in Search Labs, that you have to opt into. “As with any early-stage AI product, AI Mode won’t always get it right,” Google told us. Google also said they have been testing AI Mode “extensively with trusted testers and conducted rigorous internal evaluations using methods we’ve been honing for decades in Search.”

Google will learn from real user usage and feedback and quickly respond and adapt AI Mode. This goes across when AI Mode is triggered, any inaccuracies or odd responses it provides, if the responses are opinionated or not, provide false equivalence responses, carry context across follow-up questions, if they offer query variety, satire and humor and more.

This is new and I expect a lot of interesting examples share over social media and the mainstream media over the coming months.

Video: Here is a quick video I made of Google AI Mode for those who prefer to watch and listen to a video:

Gemini 2.0 powered AI Overviews

Not to be outdone by the AI Mode announcement, Google AI Overviews are now powered by Gemini 2.0. This was being tested back in December, Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, announced. But now we are here.

Google said “Gemini 2.0 for AI Overviews in the U.S. to help with harder questions, starting with coding, advanced math and multimodal queries, with more on the way.” “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,” Google added.

More availability. Plus, AI Overviews are now available to teenagers and no longer require a sign in to access it.