Search A Light In The Darkness

Tuesday 9 April 2024

Google plans to charge users for new “premium” search features powered by AI

Google is planning to charge users for new "premium" features run by artificial intelligence (AI), marking the first time that the Big Tech company would be putting services behind a paywall.

The tech giant is mulling options such as adding certain AI search features to its premium subscription services. Engineers are developing the technology to roll out the service, but company executives haven't decided when to launch the proposal. But early reports indicate that Google's ubiquitous search engine would continue to be free and ads would appear alongside search results even to subscribers.

"For years we've been reinventing Search to help people access information in the way that's most natural to them," said one Google spokesperson. "With our generative AI experiments in Search, we've already served billions of queries and we're seeing positive Search query growth in all our major markets."

“We're continuing to rapidly improve the product to serve new user needs,” the spokesperson continued. "We're not working on or considering an ad-free search experience. As we've done many times before, we’ll continue to build new premium capabilities and services to enhance our subscription offerings across Google."...<<<Read More>>>...