Google has been constantly rolling out new AI features to its search engine, and now the tech giant is bringing AI summaries to Discover, the main news feed in the Google search app.
Available on both the Android and iOS versions of the app, the new feature replaces headlines from major publications and instead displays an AI-generated summary with a logo of news publications in the top left corner, along with the sources it picked up the information.
If you tap on the overlapping icons on the top left, it will reveal a “More” button that shows all the linked articles. The feature also shows a three-line preview before users tap on the “See more” button to expand the AI-generated summary. Google also displays a warning saying that its AI-generated content “can make mistakes”.
Here’s what AI summaries in Google Discover look like. (Image Source: TechCrunch)
According to TechCrunch, AI summaries are not appearing for all news stories in the Google app, and when the publication reached out to Google to determine if it was a test, a company spokesperson confirmed that it is currently rolling out to those living in the United States.
As it turns out, AI summaries will focus on trending lifestyle topics like sports and entertainment, with Google claiming that it will make it easier for users to determine which pages they want to visit.
Apart from adding AI-generated summaries in Google Discover, the company is also working on a new way to showcase news in Discover, which includes showing bullet points below the headline. However, this does not bear the label generated by AI label.
While AI-generated summaries are useful for users, it is a huge cause of concern in the publishing industry, which has seen a dip in traffic and revenue since AI eliminates the need to visit the website. Earlier this week, a report by The Economist, citing Similarweb, claimed that the worldwide search traffic saw a 15 per cent decrease year over year in June.
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