Google unveils 'AI overviews' atop search results

Google CEO Sundar Pichai unveils new AI product

The new feature is "likely to heighten concerns that web publishers will see less traffic from Google Search"

(Image credit: Glenn Chapman / AFP via Getty Images)

published 15 May 2024

What happened

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Tuesday that starting this week, people using its iconic search engine in the U.S. will start getting AI-generated answers at the top of the search results, a feature dubbed "AI overviews."

"Google will do the searching, the researching, the planning, the brainstorming and so much more," Elizabeth Reid, Google's head of search, said at the company's I/O developer conference. "All you need to do is just ask."

AI overviews is "likely to heighten concerns that web publishers will see less traffic from Google Search," and they "are right to be spooked," The New York Times said. Reid said Google will keep "sending valuable traffic to publishers and creators," but having AI scour the web and summarize its findings risks destroying the mutually beneficial "grand bargain" between Google and the internet: "You give us articles, we give you traffic," clicks and ad revenue.

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.