Australians will now receive artificial intelligence-generated search results on Google, with the tech giant launching the “new era of Search” around the country.

AI Overviews uses Google’s Gemini generative AI model to provide more fulsome answers to questions within the Google search results.

It was tested in beta last year and launched across the US in May, drawing controversy for at times providing incorrect and potentially dangerous answers to users, such as suggesting to put glue on pizza and to eat a rock every day.

The AI-generated snapshots for topics or questions are now being rolled out across Australia after testing was conducted last month.

In a blog post, Google Australia said that the generative AI tool is most useful for Google searches that may have previously taken multiple searches or involved multiple steps, such as travel tips or instructions on how to remove a stain.

“AI Overviews can help people get to the gist of a topic or question more quickly, while also providing a jumping off point to learn more from sites across the web,” the Google blog post said.

“It’s clear that people who are looking for help with complex topics find them especially helpful.

“Already, people are asking longer questions, diving deeper into complex subjects and uncovering new perspectives – which means more opportunities for people to discover content from publishers, businesses and creators.”

Popular with younger users

The company said that from the initial rollout of the feature, users are more satisfied with the results being provided compared to traditional Search, and it is enjoying stronger engagement from younger users aged 18 to 24 years old.

AI Overviews provides links to further investigate the answer, and Google has launched in-line links in the AI-generated responses.

Google said it is taking a “responsible and deliberate approach” to introducing generative AI into its search services.

“We’ve trained these models to uphold Search’s high bar for quality,” the blog post said.

“They rely on our hallmark systems that we’ve fine-tuned for decades, and we’ve also applied additional guardrails, like limiting the types of queries where these capabilities will appear.

“We will continue to make improvements over time.”

AI hallucinations

Soon after this feature was rolled out in the US, many users reported receiving misleading and potentially dangerous results and answers.

These included AI Overviews allegedly telling users to add non-toxic glue to pizza to “give it more tackiness” and prevent cheese from sliding off it, and another that told a user to “eat at least one small rock per day”.

These responses, which could not be independently verified, appeared to have been based on a joke Reddit post from more than a decade ago and an article by satirical news site The Onion from 2021, respectively.

Many AI Overviews responses went viral for being incorrect, ridiculous or dangerous, with the system seemingly producing “hallucinations”, which is when AI returns incorrect or incoherent results.

Pay to use

Google is planning to make AI Overviews available to more than a billion people by the end of this year.

Earlier this year it was reported that Google was considering charging users for these AI-powered search capabilities under a subscription model, but there are no signs it is going ahead with this.

The tech titan recently rolled out its Gemini-based AI voice assistant for its Android smartphones, which adopts a naturalistic approach to conversation.

The company has also rolled out generative AI features to its productivity suite, including Gmail and Docs.

Google rival Microsoft has already rolled out generative AI in search results on its own platform Bing through its Edge internet browser.