Google has officially upgraded its AI Overviews to run on Gemini 2.0, delivering faster and more accurate responses for complex queries including coding, advanced mathematics, and multimodal searches. This upgrade represents a significant step in Google’s strategy to incorporate AI throughout its search platform.
Expanded Reach of AI Overviews
The AI Overviews feature now extends to teens and users who aren’t logged into their Google accounts, removing the previous option to bypass this feature. This expansion means more search users will interact with AI-generated results by default.
Google reports that over a billion people are currently using AI Overviews, though this substantial number stems from its automatic integration rather than users actively choosing the feature.
New AI Mode Offers Enhanced Search Capabilities
Google has also introduced AI Mode, an experimental opt-in feature available through Search Labs. This mode offers:
- Topic exploration with follow-up options
- Enhanced reasoning and comparison abilities
- Multimodal search combining text, images, and other formats
- Selected web links for further information
Currently, AI Mode is only available to Google One AI Premium subscribers, with wider availability expected soon.
Future Developments
Google plans to improve AI-powered responses with richer visual content, videos, and better formatting for a more engaging search experience. The company notes that AI-generated responses may contain biases or opinion-based information, suggesting users verify details through multiple searches.
As AI becomes more central to Google Search, questions about accuracy, reliability, and transparency remain. The real impact of these changes will become clearer as more users engage with these AI-driven features.
