Google Search’s AI Mode Gains Additional Visual Search Features

In order to better respond to customer inquiries, Google LLC is enhancing the recently added “AI Mode” feature in Google Search by adding multimodal capabilities that let it “see” user-uploaded photographs.

Last month, a limited preview of AI Mode was made available to Google One AI Premium customers. Google Search has an experimental feature that uses generative artificial intelligence to enable users to ask follow-up queries and complicated, multipart questions to delve further into a certain topic.

Google said in a blog post today that users with access to AI Mode can now upload photographs and inquire about what it sees. Millions of new customers who signed up for its Labs program to have early access to new apps are also getting the AI Mode feature.

According to Google, the multimodal search features of Google Lens—a smartphone app that lets users shoot pictures with their camera and search for them in Google Search—power AI Mode’s image analysis skills.

Google says that AI Mode will be able to comprehend the complete scenario in each photograph that is uploaded, including the relationships between the various items. According to Google, it will also be able to determine the materials those items are composed of, as well as their colors, forms, and arrangements. In order to give a more thorough response than standard Google Search, it will pose several queries regarding the picture and the items in it.

Google suggested, for instance, that someone take a picture of their bookshelf and type in the question, “If I liked these, what are some similar books I might like?” After identifying each book through image scanning, AI Mode will investigate the titles and suggest a number of other books.

Users can also pose follow-up queries. Since the user is “looking for a quick read, which one of these recommendations is the shortest?” the user may emphasize this point.

Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google Search, emphasized that “AI Mode takes it a step further and builds on years of work in the area of visual search.”

It’s unclear how well-liked the service is now that AI Mode is still an experimental feature. In response to well-known generative AI search apps that offer comparable features, like Perplexity and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search, Google released it last month.

Prior to a more widespread rollout, Google has stated that it will keep improving AI Mode’s usability and functionality.