Google Search's generative AI experience: What it is and how it works

The AI-enabled search is now available on Chrome desktop if you opt for it. It will be rolled out on the Google app for Android and iOS over the week

Google on Thursday announced that it is opening its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Search as an experimental feature in India. Called Search Generative Experience (SGE), this experimental feature adds a layer of generative AI-powered experiences on Google Search.

The SGE will be made available to users as an opt-in experiment in Google’s Search Lab, an initiative for general users to sign up and test Google’s new experimental features and products.

So what is it and how does it work? Let’s find out:

What is Google's Search Generative Experience?

It is a new experience in Google Search powered by Generative AI to enhance the users’ experience by providing relevant information upfront on the search page, instead of showing links of multiple websites that may have information related to search queries and keywords.

It essentially means that users with access to Google Search Generative Experience would see an AI-powered overview of key information to consider along with relevant links that point to the source of information.

Since it is open for testing in India, Google has added support for Hindi and English languages. It has also integrated its Text-to-Speech feature, which would allow users to listen to the responses generated as search results.

How does it work

The SGE is a Generative AI-powered version of Google Search. To know how it works, it is important to understand the fundamentals of Google Search.

In the traditional sense, Google Search shows results in the form of links to webpages that may – or may not – have relevant information related to user-generated keywords and queries.

In SGE, the relevant information from those links is compiled, organised and shown upfront. Besides, it provides links to show the source of information and places photo results towards the end of the information to amplify the visual experience.

SGE also brings the benefits of contextual information, which is not possible with the current model of Google Search since it considers each search query as a new command. This essentially means that you can ask follow-up questions or queries and Google's SGE would carry over the context from question to question.

Google said SGE will be able to understand long-form questions and prompts without the need for breaking it down into a number of smaller queries, which will significantly reduce the time taken to reach the desired output.

Since SGE supports English and Hindi languages, Google has made it easy to switch from an English result to Hindi by placing a language toggle button right on the top left side of the information screen.

Google said it would soon roll out the function that would allow users to use voice to ask follow-up questions instead of typing them in conversational mode.

Why is SGE in the experimental stage?

With AI and machine learning still relatively new to the world of technology, Gen AI has its limitations. Artificial intelligence is based on taking a more human-like approach rather than being completely accurate. Even though the AI models are trained on huge data sets, they can still be inaccurate. Google has also put in some restrictions on SGE, like limiting the type of queries that can be raised to prevent inaccuracy in search results. This is because, Google said, the SGE may misinterpret language that could change the meaning of the output. Additionally, since it relies on large language model-based experiences, the information snapshot might include misrepresented facts or inaccurate identifiers.

Will SGE show ads like Google search?

Google will continue keeping the previously designated slots for ads since “it helps people find relevant products and services,” it says. The ads on the Google search result page will appear as usual with a ‘Sponsored’ label.

When will it be available

The SGE experiment is available to opted-in users on Chrome desktop as on August 31. It will be rolled out on the Google app for Android and iOS over the coming week.