Google's Next Frontier: AI-Generated Images and Drafts in Search

Google is taking a significant stride in advancing its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities with the innovative update of its AI-powered search feature, the Search Generative Experience (SGE). This evolution introduces a conversational mode in Search, further enabling SGE to produce images and facilitate an enriched drafting experience for users, with customization options that include adjusting output length and modifying writing tone.

This development is parallel to Bing’s adaptation of OpenAI's DALLE-E 3, allowing users to interactively generate images by entering specific prompts directly into SGE. The system, leveraging Google’s Imagen text-to-image model, subsequently delivers four results within the SGE conversational interface, from which users can download images as .png files or manipulate the prompt to produce a new image set. The functionality is also integrated into Google Image search, providing users an option to create new images via prompts if existing search results are unsatisfactory.

Addressing the crucial aspect of responsible technology use, especially considering previous misuses of AI image generation tools by various platforms, Google has applied stringent filtering policies and restricted the feature to users aged 18 and above. These safeguards aim to deter the production of harmful, misleading, or explicit images, and those that contradict its generative AI use policies. The company is also inhibiting the generation of photorealistic faces and prompts that include names of prominent individuals, with the intention of preventing inappropriate content and curbing misinformation.

SGE has already showcased its ability to serve as an efficient writing assistant, providing users with drafts that could potentially be used for emails to companies discovered through Search. Now, the enhanced drafting feature can produce varied types of writing, enabling users to select longer or shorter outputs and to alter the tone according to preference, thereby providing a more tailored writing assistant experience.

Both new features – image generation and the adaptive draft writing – include export options through SGE. The writing can be exported to Google Workspace apps such as Gmail or Google Docs, while the generated images can be saved directly to Google Drive.

Google is embarking on a gradual rollout of these features, initially to a select percentage of SGE users, with plans for broader availability to the wider user base in the ensuing weeks. The features will be accessible to those who have opted to utilize SGE via Google Search Labs and will, for the moment, only be provided in English in the U.S., even as SGE itself has expanded its availability to India and Japan. The integration of feedback mechanisms and continuous adaptation of filtering and policy standards reflects Google's commitment to a responsible and user-centric application of AI technology.