After Google launched its Google AI Mode following months of rumors and weeks of leaked screenshots, providing users with more advanced reasoning, thinking, and multimodal capabilities for smarter searching, it’s only natural to want to try it out – and here’s how to do it.
As it happens, Google Search Labs has recently introduced AI Mode as an experiment that you have to opt into – and the company has to approve you. It is currently rolling out to Google One AI Premium subscribers first, but once it’s up and running, users will be able to see an AI Mode tab right below the search bar.
According to the company’s ‘AI Overviews and the AI Mode experiment in Search’ document:
“This new experimental mode in Google Search expands on AI Overviews with more advanced reasoning, thinking, and multimodal capabilities. We’re starting this as a limited experiment in Labs, and we’ll evolve the experience as we get feedback and learn what’s most helpful.”
How do I enable Google AI?
So, ‘how do I turn on AI Mode,’ you’re asking? There are three ways to access it, and they all require you to be an accepted member of the Search Labs experiment for AI Mode. Right now, Google Search Labs users can join the waitlist for AI Mode and will be notified once they’re off the waitlist.
How do I switch to AI? Once you acquire access to AI Mode, you can enable it using one of the following methods:
- Visit www.google.com, enter a query in the Search bar, and tap the ‘AI Mode’ tab below the Search bar.
- Head directly to the AI Mode tab on Google Search at: google.com/aimode
- Open the Google app and tap the AI Mode icon below the Search bar on the home screen.
On the other hand, if you want to turn off Google AI Mode, you simply need to manage your participation in this AI experiment through Search Labs. Just look for the ‘Labs’ icon in your Google Search interface, and find the options to toggle experimental features on or off within Labs.
It is also possible to turn off Google AI by adding ‘-AI’ to the end of your search query, which in some circumstances can suppress the AI overviews from appearing. Alternatively, you can change your default search engine or install a browser extension that may help in suppressing the AI overviews.
Meanwhile, some users have discovered that they can permanently block AI overviews in their search results by simply using a curse word in their Google queries, such as typing ‘Just give me the f***ing links’ – and poof, overviews are gone forever.
How to use Google AI Mode?
Specifically, AI Mode uses a custom version of Gemini 2.0 and taps into real-time information from the internet and Google, like facts from the Google Knowledge Graph, information about the real world, and shopping data from the Google Shopping Graph.
This way, it allows users to “ask nuanced questions that might have previously taken multiple searches – like exploring a new concept to comparing options and beyond – and get a comprehensive AI-powered response.”
Additionally, it deploys a ‘query fan-out’ strategy of “issuing multiple related searches concurrently across subtopics and multiple data sources and then brings those results together to provide an easy-to-understand response,” adding more breadth and depth than a traditional search on Google.
Furthermore, AI Mode facilitates multimodal searching, which means users will be able to query via voice, text, or images.
As a reminder, Google launched AI Overviews in Search in May 2024 in the United States, expanding to more countries in August 2024, and announcing the availability in over 100 countries in October last year. The feature boosts search efficiency and connections with publishers, businesses, and creators.
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