Google is revamping Search with AI, and its CEO says there’s room for improvement.<\/p>\n
Sundar Pichai<\/a> was shown the results from a Google Search query for “best Chromebook” during an appearance on the “Decoder with Nilay Patel” podcast on Tuesday.<\/p>\n As Patel, the host, scrolled through the results in front of Pichai, it showed how much Google has evolved from a simple search engine \u2014 and how the company is still finetuning the role that AI plays.<\/p>\n Google’s AI Overview said the best option was the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714. Lower down, the first organic search result \u2014 from Reddit<\/a> \u2014 had a different response.<\/p>\n When asked whether he thought that specific Search experience was good, Pichai had notes.<\/p>\n “I think it’s probably more opinionated than it should be for the particular query you showed me,” Pichai said.<\/p>\n Google did not respond immediately to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Pichai’s perspective \u2014 that the AI Overview in this particular query shows “scope for improvement” \u2014 comes as Google takes its AI drive a step further by incorporating elements from its AI Mode<\/a> and new features into Search.<\/p>\n These include the ability to ask follow-up questions, as well as “information agents” that can automatically run searches for users \u2014 a feature expected to roll out in the summer.<\/p>\n Pichai said there is “some chance” the Chromebook query has been personalized to Patel’s Search use, which is why it appears opinionated.<\/p>\n “You may be testing it in a way that you’re uniquely personalizing \u2014 you are the reason that query might not be exactly representative,” Pichai told Patel.<\/p>\n Google’s sweeping changes<\/a> to Search have been criticized by some who do not want the engine to become more personalized. Others, including Business Insider’s Katie Notopoulos<\/a>, have described it as a potential death knell for the internet due to the additional decline it could cause in website traffic.<\/p>\n It also comes at a time of growing backlash against AI<\/a>, from graduates booing tech CEOs during speeches and protests about data centers. <\/p>\n