Google rolls out AI Mode in US, during AI feast at Google I/O

Google’s I/O conference kicked off with a tsunami of AI news last night. Clearly, the company is going all-in on artificial intelligence, and is using all the levers in its power to promote it — even in Chrome.

The most important news they presented is AI Mode going live in the USA, using what is likely the most valuable screen real estate on the planet — Google’s front page — to leverage the new AI search feature. It’s been in testing for about a week.

It is powered by a custom version of Gemini Flash 2.0, and lets you use AI search with the click of a button.

Not easy to pull off
AI search has been problematic for Google so far, with lots of hallucination and just plain wrong answers, so the question remains when they roll it out so broadly whether it has improved in any measure.

— AI Mode is rooted in our core quality and ranking systems, and we’re also using novel approaches with the model’s reasoning capabilities to improve actuality, said Google in a statement to Engadget.

Mashable also notes the publishing community’s deep distrust of the technology and Googles long running desire to answer your questions right on the search page, instead of sending traffic to websites that can sometimes provide nuance and expertise. AI Mode is this kind of thinking on steroids, they point out.

Includes lots of new features
Also included in the AI Mode are several new features, like Deep Search, which searches multiple times on parts of your query and responds with a coherent reply, The Verge notes.

There is also Project Mariner, an AI agent that can click around and «do stuff,» like booking travel and hotels, or finding the best price for concert tickets and then buy them for you. This feature should also be coming to the Gemini app, and is the first true agent coming from Google.

In addition, Google is putting what it calls «Search Live» in AI mode, that lets you have a conversation with the search engine. It also lets you point your camera at anything you are curious about.

AI Mode is only available in the USA so far, though, so the rest of the world will have to patiently wait their turn. There are also no reviews of the service so far and no tests as to its accuracy or if the agentic features actually work as intended.

Gemini coming to Chrome
Not content with using its main real estate to roll out expansive AI features, Google is also turning to the world’s most used web browser to deliver AI results.

Pro and Ultra (a new $250/month Gemini plan for access to «advanced features») subscribers should soon be able to use the Chrome browser to «clarify or summarize» information on websites and will later be able to «work across multiple tabs and navigate websites on your behalf,» writes The Verge.

Google has several blog posts on this.

And there’s more!
This isn’t everything AI Google launched last night. There’s significant updates to the video generation models, enhanced reasoning and a new Deep Think mode for Gemini 2.5 Pro, experimental AI augmented glasses, using your phone’s camera for queries, and a big push for online shopping — letting you upload a picture of yourself for virtual tryouts of clothes to see if they’ll fit.

This is far too much to cover for humble teknotum, but The Verge, TechCrunch and 9to5Google are all over it.