Google has introduced new AI-powered search tools to enhance the learning and understanding experience for its users. These updates are part of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), an AI-powered conversational mode in Search that aims to help users make sense of the information they discover online.
The newly launched features include tools to view definitions of unfamiliar terms, improve understanding and coding information across languages, and access the AI power of SGE while browsing. The objective is to assist people in comprehending complex concepts, developing coding skills, and gaining more knowledge.
One of the features allows users to hover over certain words to preview their definitions and explore related images or diagrams. This feature will be available in Google’s AI-generated responses related to subjects like STEM, economics, history, and more. By tapping on the chosen item, users can delve deeper into the topic for a better understanding. Bing Chat also offers a similar feature, allowing users to highlight text on a page and select Bing to engage in a conversation and learn more.
Another new feature specifically caters to programming assistance. It will make it easier for users to understand and debug the generated code. Currently, SGE offers AI-generated overviews and code snippets for programming-related tasks. The update will introduce color-coded segments of code with syntax highlights, enabling users to identify different elements such as keywords, comments, and strings more easily.
SGE while browsing is an interesting addition, but it is currently in the early experimental stage in Search Labs. This feature is available on the Google app for Android and iOS, as well as later on Chrome for desktop. Its purpose is to help web users engage with long-form content from publishers and creators by making it easier to find specific information within the text. Users can tap to see an AI-generated list of key points in an article and navigate to the desired section through provided links. Additionally, an Explore on page option shows the questions answered in an article and allows users to jump directly to the relevant section.
It’s important to note that Bing Chat already offers a similar feature, allowing users to tap the Bing Chat icon while reading an article and ask for a summary. Google’s introduction of this feature is a step towards catching up with its rival. However, Google mentions that this feature will not provide AI summaries for paywalled articles, and publishers have the choice to block it by classifying their content as paywalled.
Google and Bing aren’t the only ones exploring how AI can summarize text. The news reading app Artifact, created by Instagram’s founders, introduced an AI summary feature in April 2023.
The SGE while browsing feature is currently available as a standalone experiment in Search Labs. It will automatically roll out to users who have opted into SGE.
These new features follow previous updates to SGE, including the addition of related videos and images to search queries.
To access Search Labs, users can use the Google app on Android and iOS or Chrome on their desktop.
In summary, Google’s introduction of AI-powered search tools aims to enhance the learning and understanding experience for users. By offering features such as hover-over definitions, syntax-highlighted code, and AI-generated summaries, Google is striving to help users comprehend complex concepts, improve coding skills, and extract valuable information from long-form content. These updates position Google to compete with its rival, Bing, and other players exploring AI-driven text summarization.
