Artificial intelligence has been reinventing and recalibrating how we have been searching online. Google has been our go-to platform for all the searches that we need. Two years ago, generative AI platform ChatGPT came into our lives and changed the way we search our queries online. GenAI is changing everyday and in a fraction of seconds coming up with newer and better ways, especially as search tools. There is now a problem of plenty and we are supposed to keep a tab on the advancements as they come. The search tools are becoming more sophisticated as well as trying to cater to specific needs, hence more customised. Here are some newer advances in AI-powered search tools:
Reddit Answers
Reddit is rolling out a new AI feature which is designed to help people find answers based on the posts on the platform. The AI tool will help find users’ answers with Reddit conversations and posts. It is currently made available for a small portion of the US user base as part of the initial test before it will be rolled out for a wider user base. The users can access it through a button on the homepage which takes them to the page where they can ask AI questions in the same manner as they do with existing GenAI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and other such platforms. The difference between Reddit Answers and other AI-powered chat and search tools is that the former will answer questions from Reddit posts itself and not from other sources on the internet. It responds to people’s questions with summaries in pointers from conversations on the platform as well as provides links to the original post and communities, functioning as an AI chatbot that can make recommendations and suggest follow-up questions. A quick glance in the Reddit chatrooms and conversations suggest that users have mixed reactions about the update. One user wrote, “Instead of finding a way to make Reddit search actually work and not be a flaming dumpster, they turn to AI to try and fill in the blanks…For some reason I want to think this AI will just use the Reddit search function itself and provide garbage answers to questions.” Another user has a different opinion and wrote, “People crying about AI will never not be funny. It is the future. It’s literally just a bot. You can ask questions if you want. Could be great if it works, but will likely be filled with misinformation like most AI chatbots are.” Media reports say the social
media company may be able to get more users to search for Reddit content on the platform, reducing its reliance on Google for traffic.
Google Search to ‘change profoundly’
Recently, in his keynote at the New York Times DealBook Summit, Google Sundar Pichai CEO confirmed that by 2025 Google Search would be equipped to handle intricate questions with greater sophistication and that it would “change profoundly” in the next year. He said, “I think we are going to be able to tackle more complex questions than ever before,” suggesting how AI will be central to this transition. Pichai also said users will get to see “newer things Search can do compared to where it is today” as early as the first half of 2025. Google already provides AI-generated summaries of the searches as quick overviews of results visible at the top of the page. A newer and enhanced version of Google Lens also allows for video-based searches. What is to be seen is that Google’s AI overhaul may enable users to ask complex questions as a single query, Pichai mentioned, instead of breaking them into multiple searches. “Rather than breaking your question into multiple searches, you can ask your most complex
questions, with all the nuances and caveats you have in mind, all in one go,” Google has said about the upcoming AI capabilities.
Ask Gemini out loud
As per reports, Google may enable Gemini Live with an option to search the internet using natural language queries using voice. The latest version of the Google app for Android includes ‘AI Mode’ code snippets which hits at this feature that can offer a conversational and visual search experience. While Google already has a visual search option in Google Lens which allows users to take a video and ask a question, Gemini Live can help the user to ask questions out loud. Media reports say this will aid performance, especially in advertising. The new AI Mode may also provide better contextual understanding, enabling users to search online simply by taking a picture or uploading an image from their gallery. Reportedly, the users may be able to ask follow-up questions in the similar vein as the Gemini Live.
