Google has become so integral to online navigation that its name became a verb, meaning “to find things on the Internet.” Soon, Google might just tell you what’s on the Internet instead of showing you. The company has announced an expansion of its AI search features, powered by Gemini 2.0. Everyone will soon see more AI Overviews at the top of the results page, but Google is also testing a more substantial change in the form of AI Mode. This version of Google won’t show you the 10 blue links at all—Gemini completely takes over the results in AI Mode.

This marks the debut of Gemini 2.0 in Google search. Google announced the first Gemini 2.0 models in December 2024, beginning with the streamlined Gemini 2.0 Flash. The heavier versions of Gemini 2.0 are still in testing, but Google says it has tuned AI Overviews with this model to offer help with harder questions in the areas of math, coding, and multimodal queries.

With this update, you will begin seeing AI Overviews on more results pages, and minors with Google accounts will see AI results for the first time. In fact, even logged out users will see AI Overviews soon. This is a big change, but it’s only the start of Google’s plans for AI search.

Gemini 2.0 also powers the new AI Mode for search. It’s launching as an opt-in feature via Google’s Search Labs, offering a totally new alternative to search as we know it. This custom version of the Gemini large language model (LLM) skips the standard web links that have been part of every Google search thus far.

  • octopus_ink@slrpnk.net
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    15 hours ago

    Does EVERY axis in life have to be fucked up at the same time?

    Can we have one thing that is just doing ok?

    Government - fucked.

    Education - fucked.

    Healthcare - fucked.

    Environment - fucked.

    Societal and Social Cohesion - fucked.

    Wealth Inequality - fucked.

    Personal Technological Autonomy - fucked, and under continuous attack.

    Technological Enshittification - Running like gangbusters. So really - fucked.

    Damn, someone give me some kind of ladder to climb out of this pit of despair.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Every civilization rises and falls. We’re on the down slope ATM. Sorry. The 80s and 90s were pretty nice in America!

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Does EVERY axis in life have to be fucked up at the same time?

      Yes. There are many texts written on this since start of writing, some are written down from what was carried in word before that since start of speaking.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        They also flow from corruption (regulatory capture/failure to enforce anti-trust and other consumer-protection law). It’s hard to say whether that is itself a cause or result of wealth inequality, though.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          Nintendo, when chasing developers of emulators and modders, uses regulatory mechanisms. IP is such a mechanism initially. Intended to protect the little guy from big bad corporations.

          It’s hard to say whether that is itself a cause or result of wealth inequality, though.

          It’s both of course. Only time flows in one direction and never the other.

    • Singletona082@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      The ladder has been privatized.

      You get the greased pole.

      I know it isn’t much, but services like mastodon, lemmy, kbin, friendica, Peertube, etc have shown me there is connected pushback.

      Tilde communities have given me something smaller scale to focus on.

      https://tildeverse.org/

    • slumberlust@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Problems exist, but there’s never been a safer time to be a homosapien on Earth. A book called Abundance helped me gain a little perspective in these gloomy days.