Google announces glasses are back and search is getting an AI makeover | Google

Google announced Tuesday that it will augment its search bar, the centerpiece of the world’s most visited website, with a heavy dose of artificial intelligence. The tech giant is also trying its hand again in high-tech eyewear, more than a decade after wearers of its first glasses were laughed at in San Francisco as “glass holes”.

At Google I/O, the company’s annual conference for software developers, Google executives announced that the search box will accommodate longer and more specific queries than before; these were the kinds of questions these people would ask each other, rather than the peculiar syntax of Search. The changes will direct users to interact directly with Google’s chatbot. The search change is supported by Gemini 3.5, the company’s new artificial intelligence model announced on the same day.

Gemini will make longer text predictions than it currently does, based on what users are currently typing, executives said. A daily Google search can likewise bring up more visual elements and suggestions for interacting with Google’s AI to create a calendar invite, a plan in a spreadsheet, or another action within Google’s family of products.

“Google Search is AI search,” said Elizabeth Reid, who oversees the product, calling these changes the biggest Google Search has seen in its nearly 30-year history. The updates will be rolled out globally to desktop and mobile versions of Google Search on Tuesday. A video introducing the changes showed results that looked less like a list of links and more like visually enhanced versions of AI Overviews, the bulleted summary answers that Google Search now returns. By clicking on the tab titled “Web”, users will be able to select the original version of the search, i.e. the collection of links.

Google Search queries hit an all-time high last month, Reid said. Since the debut of Search’s “AI Mode” a year ago, where the user chats with a Gemini-powered bot rather than navigating to a list of links, queries to the chatbot-specific interface have doubled every quarter. If a user adds a photo, video, or document to the Chrome browser’s search bar, Search automatically switches to AI mode.

Josh Woodward, who oversaw the development of the flagship AI, said Google Gemini’s goal is to create “a universal assistant that is personal, proactive and persistent.” The company announced that 900 million people use the Gemini application monthly, which is less than ChatGPT’s 900 million weekly users. The addition of agents to Google’s flagship search product, used by billions of people every day, signals the expansion of a niche type of AI beyond the realm of tech-savvy, business-focused users into the broader consumer space.

For those subscribed to the AI ​​Pro and Ultra plans, the search will include the option to create “information agents,” autonomous AI bots that can conduct in-depth research and send summaries or action plans of it to the user. A “generative user interface” feature would be able to create interactive elements such as visuals and dashboards customized to the user’s wishes. A new agent feature, Gemini Spark, will allow users to access information from Gmail, Google Calendar, and other Google products to research, shop, and plan upcoming trips, appointments, or recurring tasks.

Google executives, along with partners Samsung and eyewear manufacturers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, have unveiled “smart glasses,” a line of sunglasses and glasses that will be available in the fall. The glasses will respond to voice commands that users give to Gemini and can take photos or videos with embedded cameras. Another tech giant, Meta, has partnered with eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica to sell Ray-Ban Meta, similar voice-activated, camera-equipped glasses starting in 2021.

In 2014, Google began selling another optical computer, Google Glass, for $1,500, which was subject to widespread ridicule and was shut down the following year. In a sign of changing attitudes, Meta sees augmented reality glasses as a key growth area for its future business, and Google is even working on a second model of smart glasses with an in-lens display called Project Aura.

Other announcements at I/O included AI coding features for Gemini and cybersecurity-focused AI.