In a bid to stay at the forefront of AI-driven search experiences, Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) has launched innovative image generation tools and revamped its writing features. These new capabilities set Google in direct competition with Bing's support for OpenAI's DALLE-E 3.
SGE, a transformative AI feature known for its conversational search mode, now facilitates users to generate images and customize written drafts based on length and tone. This evolution follows SGE's recent updates, which introduced AI-based summaries, unfamiliar term definitions, coding enhancements, and more.
Google’s Imagen text-to-image model powers this novel image generation feature. By simply entering a prompt specifying the image type, SGE will showcase four results, which can be edited or downloaded. This facility will also integrate with Google Image search, offering users the ability to create images if existing search results are unsatisfactory.
However, given the potential misuse of AI image generation, Google has set an age limit of 18 for accessing this feature and has implemented strict filtering policies to curtail the creation of harmful, misleading, or explicit images. Google’s proactive approach ensures the prevention of misinformation and inappropriate content generation.
Unfortunately, as witnessed with platforms like Meta and Bing, AI image generation tools can be manipulated to produce shocking or inappropriate outputs. Google acknowledges these imperfections and has enabled a feedback mechanism for users to report any discrepancies.
Furthermore, to safeguard authenticity, Google has embedded metadata and watermarking, invisible to the human eye, in the images. This watermarking is backed by SynthID, a joint initiative by Google Cloud and Google DeepMind.
In addition to image generation, SGE's writing tool has been refined to provide drafts that can be customized in terms of length and tone. These drafts can easily be exported to Google Workspace apps like Gmail and Google Docs. Likewise, generated images can be stored on Google Drive.
These enhanced features are slated to be available to a select percentage of SGE users, with a broader rollout planned in the upcoming weeks. Initially available only in English in the U.S., Google has plans for further expansion, given SGE’s recent introduction to India and Japan.
