Creators and Small Publishers are Nervous About the Change...
Google on Tuesday said it would introduce AI-generated answers to online queries made by users in the United States, in one of the biggest updates to its search engine in 25 years.
"I'm excited to announce that we will begin launching this fully revamped experience, 'AI overviews,' to everyone in the US this week," Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said at an event in California.
The feature would soon be available in other countries, he added
With the change, many of Google's search results will feature an AI "overview" at the top of the page before the more typical unfurling of links and features.
The search engine's AI answers, generated by Google's Gemini AI technology, offer a paragraph or two of explanation with links to the online sources that supplied the information.
You can ask whatever's on your mind or whatever you need to get done - from researching to planning to brainstorming - and Google will take care of the legwork," said Google Search team boss Liz Reid.
Creators and small publishers are nervous about the change, fearing users will no longer click through to websites to find information.
Research firm Gartner predicts traffic to the web from search engines will fall 25 percent by 2026 because of the introduction AI bots and such features features.
Google pushed back at the suggestion that Chat GPT style chatbots could impact its business.
"We've found that with AI Overviews, people use Search more, and are more satisfied with their results," Reid said.
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