Google Photos' new AI-powered search feature, "Ask Photos," is rolling out to select users in the U.S., allowing them to search their photos using more complex natural language queries.

Google Photos is reorganizing its "Library" into a "Collections" page, featuring a new layout with thumbnail shortcuts for faces, locations, and content types. This update, possibly in preparation for integrating Google's Gemini AI-powered "Ask Photos" function, replaces the search bar with shortcuts like favorites, selfies, and screenshots. There are reports of inconsistencies with the Gemini AI software.

Google Photos is introducing an AI-powered video editor for Android and iOS that features new tools like a "Speed" tool for slow-motion or fast-forward effects and an "Auto Enhance" button for color and stability improvements. AI presets enable automatic cropping, speed control, lighting adjustments, and effects such as zooming and dynamic motion tracking.

Google plans to enhance Google Search by flagging AI-generated images in the "About this image" window. This feature relies on C2PA metadata to identify AI-manipulated photos, but its adoption faces challenges since only a few tools and cameras support these standards. While companies like Google, Amazon, and Adobe back C2PA, metadata can still be removed or corrupted. Despite these limitations, such measures aim to combat the rapid spread of deepfakes.

Google is incorporating AI into its search engine with features like "AI Overviews" and a new planning tool. It aims to deliver summarized answers, automatic categorization, and personalized results using its Gemini AI to understand queries, generate summaries, and design result pages. For users, this could mean a completely new way to interact with the internet: less typing, fewer tabs, and more chatting with a search engine.

Billions of Google users will soon see AI-generated summaries at the top of many of their search results. The AI Overviews are designed to take out the hard work of searching so users can focus on the important things. Google announced several other AI-powered features at its I/O developer conference, such as a feature in Lens that lets users search by capturing a video, a planning tool that can generate trip itineraries and meal plans with a single query, and suggestions within search results. While similar products have come under scrutiny for summarizing content and not directing users to the actual sources of information, Google says that early data shows that the new way of searching will actually lead to more clicks to the open web.

Google introduced AI Overviews to enhance search results, providing users with more accurate and relevant information, especially for complex queries. While some issues arose, such as erroneous results and misinterpreted content, Google has implemented over a dozen technical improvements to address these challenges, including better detection of nonsensical queries and limiting user-generated content in AI Overviews.

Introduced at its 'It's Glowtime' event, Apple's new 'Visual Intelligence' feature enhances visual search via the iPhone 16's Camera Control button. It enables access to Google's search engine and other third-party tools, like OpenAI's ChatGPT, directly from the camera interface for varied tasks.

Search engines are embracing a hybrid approach, leveraging AI to infer user intent and determine the appropriate output.

Emerging AI-driven search tools challenge Google by offering direct and explorative answers, but struggle to match its speed, diverse functionalities, and efficient data presentation, underscoring the complexity of replacing traditional search with AI.

After pausing it due to issues with historically inaccurate images, Google has reintroduced the image generation feature in its Gemini AI chatbot. Using brief text descriptions, the updated tool can create diverse types of images, from photorealistic landscapes to oil paintings. Enhanced safeguards preventing users from creating pictures of public figures, minors, and explicit scenes are now in place. Feedback from early users will guide further improvements.

Bing Deep Search, an optional generative AI feature meant to help searchers with complex questions that don’t have simple answers, is now fully live for all users. It was originally announced in December 2023 as a search engine that goes deeper on queries using Bing’s index and GPT-4. This article contains a video showing how the feature works.

Google is expanding access to its AI photo editing tools in Google Photos, including Magic Editor, previously exclusive to Pixel owners and Google One subscribers. Now, any user with a compatible Android or iOS device can use these features, with free users limited to 10 monthly saves, while Pixel owners and paying subscribers enjoy unlimited use.

OpenAI, the brains behind the wildly popular ChatGPT, aims to rival Google Search by offering a new AI-driven approach to finding information online. SearchGPT compiles its answers using data from Bing and other sources. Reports from early users say that the tool sometimes provides information that is inaccurate or “hallucinated,” presenting confident but incorrect answers.

Google announced new Gemini AI-powered features for Google Home, including intelligent captions for Nest camera footage, natural language processing for Home routine creation, and an upgraded, more natural-sounding Google Assistant. The advanced features, primarily behind a Nest Aware subscription paywall, aim to enhance the smart home experience with the rollout commencing in beta and expanding next year. As part of the move toward smarter home automation, Google envisions an assistant that can proactively manage complex and dynamic home environments.

Google is reportedly considering making the Search Generative Experience (SGE), which has been available through Search Labs for nearly a year, a paid feature as part of its Google One AI Premium subscription.

OpenAI's SearchGPT aims to rival Google Search by offering a new AI-driven approach to finding information online. It compiles its answers using data from Bing and other sources. Reports from early users say that the tool sometimes provides inaccurate or hallucinated information. The tool is not yet ready to challenge Google's dominance.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai discusses the integration of AI into Google products and its potential impact on the web. Google's new AI-powered search feature, AI Overviews, provides users with more context-rich search results. There are concerns from content creators about traffic loss, but Google is trying to balance user satisfaction with the needs of content creators.

Meta started tagging edited photos as “Made with AI,” causing confusion among photographers who used essential editing tools. This led to the introduction of the new “AI Info” tag across all of its apps. The underlying technology for detecting AI remains unchanged, but the new label aims to clarify that not all tagged photos are fully AI-generated. The issue with undetected, completely AI-generated photos persists, and Meta and other platforms and editing tool providers need to create fair guidelines for photographers.

Microsoft has introduced Bing generative search, which delivers AI-composed responses as primary results while citing source links and related content. The feature is in preview and limited to a few user queries. A broader rollout will depend on feedback and performance. The move follows Google's addition of AI Overviews and signals intensifying competition in AI-enhanced search tools.

Google recently launched AI Overviews, an AI-powered search feature designed to help users with complex queries. Odd and erroneous overviews were reported on social media, some of which were faked. Google explained that AI Overviews, unlike chatbots, are integrated with the company's core web ranking systems and prioritize accuracy by linking to reputable sources. The odd results stemmed from misinterpretations of nonsensical queries, satirical content, and user-generated content, as well as data voids. Google has now made improvements to detect these issues.

Google is piloting AI-generated overviews in search results for complex queries with a subset of U.S. users without requiring opt-in to its Search Generative Experience. This feedback-driven test aims to enhance user experience and may impact site traffic dynamics due to changes in ad placements and organic search visibility.

Google's AI Overview product has been generating bizarre responses, prompting the company to manually disable the feature for specific searches. Errors include suggestions to eat glue or rocks. Google maintains that its AI outputs high-quality information, though it acknowledges some errors and is working on improvements.

The upcoming Google Pixel 9 series will introduce new machine learning abilities under the branding of Google AI. Google AI includes features such as Add Me, Studio, and Pixel Screenshots. Add Me appears to be an upgraded version of Best Take and Studio is likely a previously seen Creative Assistant app. Pixel Screenshots is a feature that closely resembles Microsoft's controversial Recall feature except that it uses screenshots users take themselves instead of recording everything users do on their devices.

A new beta update for WhatsApp for Android features Meta AI integrated directly into the app's search bar. The new feature lets users ask questions through prompts within the search interface, making it easier to interact with Meta AI. WhatsApp is building an AI-powered tool for users to edit their photos, including adjusting the background, restyling, and expansion.

Google is rolling out its AI Overviews search to U.S.-based users of Google Search. AI Overviews gives answers to queries using generative AI technology powered by Google Gemini. It provides a few snippets of an answer based on its understanding of queries and the content it found on the topic across the web.

Following a limited release to select Vertex AI users, Google's advanced text-to-image AI model, Imagen 3, is now available to all U.S. users through the ImageFX platform. This quiet expansion has sparked mixed reactions, with some praising the tool's improved texture and word recognition capabilities while others criticize its strict content filters.

OpenAI has announced a prototype of an AI-powered search engine with real-time access to information across the internet. SearchGPT can summarize findings and answer questions about queries. It will only be accessible to 10,000 test users at launch. OpenAI is working with third-party partners and using direct content feeds to build its search results.

Google has integrated AI into its internal software development tools, with developers now using AI-based code completion for 50% of code characters. It has improved both model accuracy and user experience, and the company plans to further leverage AI in areas like testing, code understanding, and code maintenance. The industry as a whole is moving towards adding natural language as a common interface for software engineering tasks, like fixing bugs and writing new code.

Google has made a handful of editing features previously exclusive to Pixel devices and paid subscribers free to all Google Photos users. The features include the AI-powered Magic Editor, Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, and Portrait Light. They will only work on devices running Android 8.0 or iOS 15 or higher and on Chromebook Plus devices with at least 3GB RAM and ChromeOS version 118+. The tools will start rolling out on May 15 - it may take weeks for them to make it to all users.