CALIFORNIA: Google on Tuesday unleashed another wave of artificial intelligence technology to accelerate a year-long makeover of its search engine that is changing the way people get information and curtailing the flow of Internet traffic to websites.
The next phase outlined at Google’s annual developers conference includes releasing a new “AI mode” option in the United States. The feature makes interacting with Google’s search engine more like having a conversation with an expert capable of answering questions on just about any topic imaginable.
AI mode is being offered to all comers in the US just two-and-a-half-months after the company began testing with a limited Labs division audience.
Google is also feeding its latest AI model, Gemini 2.5, into its search algorithms and will soon begin testing other AI features, such as the ability to automatically buy concert tickets and conduct searches through live video feeds.
In another example of Google’s all-in approach to AI, the company revealed it is planning to leverage the technology to re-enter the smart glasses market with a new pair of Android XR-powered spectacles. The preview of the forthcoming device, which includes a hands-free camera and a voice-powered AI assistant, comes 13 years after the debut of “Google Glass,” a product that the company scrapped after a public backlash over privacy concerns.
Google didn’t say when its Android XR glasses will be available or how much they will cost, but disclosed they will be designed in partnership with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker. The glasses will compete against a similar product already on the market from Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Ray-Ban.
AI’s big role in Google search
The expansion builds upon a transformation that Google began a year ago with the introduction of conversational summaries called “AI overviews” that have been increasingly appearing at the top of its results page and eclipsing its traditional rankings of web links.
About 1.5 billion people now regularly engage with “AI overviews,” according to Google, and most users are now entering longer and more complex queries.
“What all this progress means is that we are in a new phase of the AI platform shift, where decades of research are now becoming reality for people all over the world,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said before a packed crowd in an amphitheater near the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters.
AI ripples across the Internet
Although Pichai and other Google executives predicted AI overviews would trigger more searches and ultimately more clicks to other sites, it hasn’t worked out that way so far, according to the findings of search optimization firm BrightEdge.
Clickthrough rates from Google’s search results have declined by nearly 30 percent during the past year, according to BrightEdge’s recently released study, which attributed the decrease to people becoming increasingly satisfied with AI overviews.
The decision to make AI mode broadly available after a relatively short test period reflects Google’s confidence that the technology won’t habitually spew misinformation that tarnishes its brand’s reputation, and acknowledges the growing competition from other AI-powered search options from the likes of ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Will AI undercut or empower Google?
The rapid rise of AI alternatives emerged as a recurring theme in legal proceedings that could force Google to dismantle parts of its Internet empire after a federal judge last year declared its search engine to be an illegal monopoly.
In testimony during a trial earlier this month, longtime Apple executive Eddy Cue said Google searches done through the iPhone maker’s Safari browser have been declining because more people are leaning on AI-powered alternatives.
And Google has cited the upheaval being caused by AI’s rise as one of the main reasons that it should only be required to make relatively minor changes to the way it operates its search engine because technology already is changing the competitive landscape.
But Google’s reliance on more AI so far appears to be enabling its search engine to maintain its mantle as the Internet’s main gateway — a position that’s main reason its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., boasts a market value of $2 trillion.
During the year ending in March, Google received 136 billion monthly visits, 34 times more than ChatGPT’s average of 4 billion monthly visits, according to data compiled by onelittleweb.com.
Even Google’s own AI mode acknowledged that the company’s search engine seems unlikely to be significantly hurt by the shift to AI technology when a reporter from The Associated Press asked whether its introduction would make the company even more powerful.
“Yes, it is highly likely that Google’s AI mode will make Google more powerful, particularly in the realm of information access and online influence,” the AI mode responded. The feature also warns that web publishers should be concerned about AI mode reducing the traffic they get from search results.
Even more AI waiting in the wings
Google’s upcoming tests in its Labs division foreshadow the next wave of AI technology likely to be made available to the masses.
Besides using its Project Mariner technology to test the ability of an AI agent to buy tickets and book restaurant reservations, Google will also experiment with searches done through live video and an opt-in option to give its AI technology access to people’s Gmail and other Google apps so it can learn more about a user’s tastes and habits. Other features on this summer’s test list include a “Deep Search” option that will use AI to dig even deeper into complex topics and another tool that will produce graphical presentations of sports and finance data.
Google is also introducing its equivalent of a VIP pass to all its AI technology with an “Ultra” subscription package that will cost $250 per month and include 30 terabytes of storage, too. That’s a big step beyond Google’s previous top-of-the-line package, which is now called “AI “Pro,” that costs $20 per month and includes two terabytes of storage.
Google’s unleashes ‘AI Mode’ in the next phase of its journey to change search
https://arab.news/986n8
Google’s unleashes ‘AI Mode’ in the next phase of its journey to change search
- Google is also feeding its latest AI model, Gemini 2.5, into its search algorithms and will soon begin testing other AI features
‘AI is here, now what?’ Arab News unveils report on future of media ahead of Bridge Summit
- As the Bridge Summit opens in Abu Dhabi, Arab News releases a landmark report on how AI is transforming media in the MENA region
- Based on a high-level roundtable at the Dubai Future Forum, the new report highlights both the opportunities and risks facing Arab media
DUBAI: As the Bridge Summit kicks off in Abu Dhabi on Monday, bringing together global leaders to explore the future of media, entertainment, and the creative economy, Arab News has launched a timely report on how artificial intelligence is transforming the media industry in the Middle East and beyond.
The report, produced by the Arab News Research and Studies Unit following a high-level roundtable at the Dubai Future Forum, captures the urgency and complexity of AI adoption in the media industry of the Middle East and North Africa region.
It explores how AI is transforming newsroom operations, redefining journalistic roles, and raising critical questions around credibility, accuracy, and trust amid rapid technological disruption.
AI is no longer an emerging trend in the Middle East — it is a central force reshaping economies, governance and public communication.
With AI projected to contribute $320 billion to the regional economy by 2030, including more than $135 billion to Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product and nearly $96 billion to the UAE’s, governments and industries are racing to integrate it.
But, for the region’s news media, AI represents something deeper than economic potential: a direct challenge to the foundations of credibility, trust and fact-based reporting.
Such were the questions that set the stage for the roundtable hosted and moderated by Arab News’ Deputy Editor-in-Chief Noor Nugali in collaboration with the Dubai Future Foundation, where editors, media executives and tech specialists convened to confront an industry experiencing one of the most dramatic transformations in its history.
The result is an exhaustive and insightful report, which offers both optimism and unease as AI’s looming presence weaves into daily newsroom operations, just as the guardrails needed to protect journalism from misinformation, bias and opacity remain dangerously underdeveloped.
“AI is here and it’s transforming our newsroom,” said Mina Al-Oraibi, editor in chief of the UAE’s leading daily The National, as she described how her team recently held a full-newsroom AI workshop to generate internal use cases.
“We got 26 ideas that we’re working through so people don’t feel this is something imposed,” she said. “They need to feel they’re ahead of the curve rather than being eaten up by it.”
Across the region, that curve is moving quickly. Globally, 81 percent of journalists now use AI tools during their general work, while nearly half do so daily.
However, reporters admit they rely on it mostly to handle mundane, time-consuming tasks such as transcribing interviews, summarizing reports, and translating documents.
Nabeel Al-Khatib, general manager of Asharq News, explained how the shift has already redefined newsroom economics.
“A newsroom of 50 can now publish the equivalent of what 500 once could,” he said. However, although “machines will take over the production line,” he argued that “human oversight must remain to ensure accuracy, context and editorial standards.”
For many newsrooms, the advent of generative AI — machines creating new original content — has created valuable efficiencies, freeing journalists to spend more time verifying and reporting, which are tasks no machine can yet replace.
However, several speakers stressed that the value of AI depends entirely on how intentionally it is used.
“We believe it’s human first, human last,” said Nayla Tueni, editor in chief of Lebanese daily An-Nahar. “We need to always fact-check everything. But at the same time, we need to use all the tools.”
For Tueni, transformation is not optional. “I don’t think journalism will end,” she said. However, if outlets “don’t transform, they cannot continue because the world is transforming every second.”
Accessing revenue streams is also a concern. Elda Choucair, CEO of Omnicom Media Group MENA, said “the biggest danger is … if you don’t have content that you advertise around.”
The region’s audiences appear more comfortable with AI-enhanced content than those in Western markets. But even as opportunities expand, risks multiply. AI-generated misinformation has surged so dramatically that the World Economic Forum ranked it the top global short-term threat for the second year in a row.
A BBC-led audit of four major AI systems found that nearly half of AI-generated answers contained significant errors, fabricated details or incorrect sourcing.
“It’s already very difficult to differentiate between the (true) and the fake,” said Choucair. “We need to create awareness that sometimes, if you really want the truth, you’ve got to wait.”
At a time when 70 percent of global audiences say they struggle to trust online content, speakers warned that the misuse or undisclosed use of AI could deepen a crisis of confidence.
“The machine should be a slave to human beings,” advertising media mogul Pierre Choueiri said, adding: “This is where governments, or regulations, should come in.”
However, regulation in the region remains elusive. While Saudi Arabia has taken major steps, including the establishment of the Saudi Data & AI Authority and the Kingdom’s Generative AI Guidelines, efforts remain far from the comprehensive frameworks seen in Europe.
“It’s inconceivable that Arab consumers are left to face significant risks with no regulatory shield,” said media strategist and legal expert Mazen Hayek. He argued that the region needs its own protections, like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, to ensure transparency, safeguard data and hold AI providers accountable.
For Hayek and others, the deeper problem involves technological sovereignty. Nearly all of the AI platforms used in the Middle East today — from search engines to large language models — are built and controlled abroad, often trained on datasets that do not reflect the region’s linguistic, cultural or political realities.
“We live in a region that has zero control over the platforms and the technology that we consume,” Hayek said. “Someone needs to create a platform that empowers the region to create and distribute its own content.”
Julien Hawari, CEO of the emerging social media platform Million, said the main issue is integrity. “That has been a problem for as long as we can think of.”
Rashid Al-Marri, CEO of the Media Regulation Sector at the Dubai Media Council, explained that “there has to be that human element understanding (the content) and what’s happening and being able to come out and speak and get the truth out there.”
Saudi Arabia’s push toward sovereign AI infrastructure, including Public Investment Fund-backed HUMAIN and the $100 billion Project Transcendence, was cited as a step in the right direction. However, roundtable participants warned that unless the region accelerates these efforts, it risks ceding its information future to external algorithms and foreign companies.
The human-capital gap is equally pressing. Despite widespread adoption, most journalists using AI have received little or no training. Many rely on self-learning or online tutorials, and nearly eight in 10 work in newsrooms without formal AI policies.
This lack of structure has created an environment where AI is widely deployed but rarely governed.
For CAMB.AI co-founder Avneesh Prakash, the solution requires both precaution and empowerment. “Like any innovation, AI needs to be regulated,” he said. “Just as a car has an accelerator and a brake, AI must include a kill switch because it requires human judgment, human creativity and human resilience.”
Despite the risks, the discussion ended on a note of guarded optimism. Participants agreed that AI can help rebuild journalism for a digital era — but only if newsrooms combine innovation with rigorous editorial oversight, transparency and a renewed commitment to verification.
Mamoon Sbeih, regional president of advertising firm APCO, offered a clear warning of what lies ahead. AI, he said, “might help the journalism industry progress and redefine itself, or it might expedite its demise.”
For now, the region’s media leaders remain determined to pursue the first path — ensuring that even as machines play a growing role in production, the values that define journalism remain firmly, unmistakably human.
