According to a report on Wednesday, Google is examining a variety of options to monetize its premium AI-powered search features Financial Times which cited people familiar with the matter.
One proposal included integrating AI-powered search capabilities into Google’s existing premium subscription.
“AI-powered search is more expensive to compute than traditional Google search processes,” Heather Dawe, chief data scientist at digital transformation consultancy UST, told the Guardian. “So by charging for AI-based search, Google will at least try to recover these costs.”
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We tested Google AI’s core search experience, currently in beta testing for select users. The AI generates an answer or response to a search query, including links to sources in its response.
Regular search results appear below the AI chatbot response.
Credit: Entrepreneur
This approach combines the familiar Google search interface with the results that an AI chatbot like Gemini AI or ChatGPT would provide in response to the same query.
It didn’t require anything extra, like accessing an external application, making it intuitive even for an individual not attuned to AI.
According to Semrush, Google processes 5.9 million searches per minute, and around 1.5 billion people use AI chatbots, according to a survey by Tidio.
Recent AI search features released by Google include Circle (or highlight or scribble) for search, which allows users to circle anything on the Android screen, including parts of an image. Google’s artificial intelligence comes into action to perform a search on the object or item, on apps like Calendar and Maps.
A wall displays Google’s new AI feature, Circle to Search, in Barcelona, Spain, on March 25, 2024. (Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Google customers who want to use the company’s Gemini AI assistant in Gmail, Docs, or other Google services must already sign up for the Google One AI Premium subscription, which costs $20 per month.
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