Google's Vision: A Future Where AI Does the Googling for You
At this year's Google I/O, artificial intelligence wasn'tjust part of the story—it was the story. The tech giant unveiled a vision forthe future in which Google's AI doesn't just help you search, it does thesearching for you.
The centre of this evolution is AI Mode in Google Search, nowrolling out across the U.S. This new mode transforms the traditional search barinto an intelligent, chatbot-like interface capable of understanding complexqueries and pulling together comprehensive, curated responses. It's a step awayfrom the familiar list of blue links and a leap toward an AI that actively doesyour online legwork.
During the keynote, Google demonstrated how AI Mode couldplan a weekend getaway to Nashville for friends interested in food, music, andunique experiences. Instead of offering a basic search result, AI Mode createddynamic, themed suggestions such as 'restaurants good for foodies,' 'chill baratmosphere with live music,' and 'off-the-beaten-path attractions,' completewith a customised map and links to relevant sites.
Behind this capability is what Google calls its 'queryfanout technique,' powered by a custom version of its Gemini model. Liz Reid,head of Google Search, explained:
'Now, under the hood, Search recognizes when a questionneeds advanced reasoning. It calls on our custom version of Gemini to break thequestion into different subtopics, and it issues a multitude of queriessimultaneously on your behalf... Search pulls together a response and checksits work to make sure it meets our high bar for information quality.'
This means that what used to be several separate searchesare now bundled into one—executed and analyzed by Google's AI, which thendelivers a comprehensive response. The AI Mode interface even shows users howmany searches it's performing in the background.
Later this summer, a new 'Deep Search' feature is slated toarrive within AI Mode. It builds on the same query fanout approach but scalesit significantly. According to Reid, Deep Search can 'issue dozens or evenhundreds of searches on your behalf' to produce even more in-depth answers.
Another key player in Google's AI ecosystem is ProjectMariner, a behind-the-scenes tool that allows AI to perform complex web tasks.It can juggle up to 10 operations simultaneously and features a 'Teach and Repeat'capability, allowing users to train the system to perform recurring tasks.
Google is extending these functionalities to the Geminiapp's new Agent Mode, which also taps into Project Mariner. CEO Sundar Pichaigave a live example of how Agent Mode could help find an apartment in Austin byautomatically scanning listings on Zillow and surfacing the best matches.
Additionally, Project Mariner will soon integrate into AIMode itself. Rajan Patel, VP of Engineering for Search, demonstrated how thetool could locate baseball tickets and provide a direct purchase button—allfrom within the search interface.
What Google is proposing is a major transformation in how weinteract with the web. The company sees AI not just as an assistant but as areplacement for many of the routine search tasks users handle today. As Reidsummed it up:
'Google believes AI will be the most powerful engine fordiscovery that the web has ever seen.'
If these AI tools deliver as promised, users may findthemselves spending less time searching—and more time simply receiving theanswers they need. In Google's future, your next deep dive into the web mightjust start and end with one query, handled entirely by AI.
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