Ask AI or just Google it? Google makes a big change to a little search box

Business Ask AI or just Google it? Google makes a big change to a little search box May 22, 20263:05 PM ET John Ruwitch Google chief executive Sundar Pichai speaks during the tech titan's annual I/O developers conference on May 14, 2024, in Mountain View, California. Google on Tuesday said it would introduce AI-generated answers to online queries made by users in the United States, in one of the biggest updates to its search engine in 25 years. (Photo by Glenn CHAPMAN / AFP) (Photo by GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP via Getty Images) GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP via Getty Images/AFP hide caption toggle caption GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP via Getty Images/AFP Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter sent every weekday morning. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Google is changing what it means to Google. The company this week announced significant changes to its search box — that austere, single-line input field on its homepage that has been the world's most popular entry point into the web for around two-and-a-half decades. The new version looks similar to the old one-line text box, but it's dynamic, expanding with longer queries. Users can also drop videos, pictures and files into it for what Google calls "multimodal" search. Behind the scenes, a bigger shift is under way. Google is merging artificial intelligence and traditional web search in a move that Liz Reid, who oversees search at Google, said brings "the best of web and the best of AI together." Sponsor Message Critics say folding AI deeper into search risks further muddying the waters around the provenance of information gleaned from the web, and could take agency away from users. A chatbot is likely to return a summary with only a few links to further information, unlike a web search that returns many pages of links. But the shift is, in some ways, not surprising, given Silicon Valley's hard pivot toward AI, with Google and others investing billions in the technology and refocusing corporate strategies around it. For about a year, Google has put...