Despite early blowback, Google expands AI Overviews

By Andrew Tarantola Published August 15, 2024

AI Overviews being shown in Google Search. — Google

After launching in May and weathering the ire of users since then, Google’s AI Overview is expanding to six additional countries. Specifically, the AI-powered search query summarizer will be coming to the U.K., India, Japan, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico, with localized language support for each.

Recommended Videos

Despite initial blowback from users, Google claims that people are already “asking longer questions, diving deeper into complex subjects, and uncovering new perspectives” using Overview, according to the company’s announcement blog post Thursday. “With AI Overviews, we’re seeing that people have been visiting a greater diversity of websites for help with more complex questions. And when people click from search result pages with AI Overviews, these clicks are higher quality for websites — meaning users are more likely to spend more time on the sites they visit.”

Google AI Overview with Japan localization — Google

Along with the expanded service area, Google is also introducing a new means of finding relevant websites as you search with its link display for AI Overviews on desktop (you can also access it on mobile through the site icon in the upper-right corner of the search window.) That feature begins rolling out today on Overview, as well as for Search Labs users.

The company is also testing adding links to relevant webpages directly within the Overview summaries themselves (much as links on this website are presented) so users can easily click through and more fully explore the referred website.

Google notes that displaying links in this manner has shown to drive increased traffic to publisher sites. “We’ll continue testing different ways of presenting information that’s most helpful for people, while prioritizing approaches that drive traffic to relevant websites,” the announcement reads.

Google is also making a pair of updates to Search Labs for people who have opted in to the “AI Overviews and more” experiment. Users can now “save” generated Overviews for future reference so they won’t have to remember the specific prompt they entered in their initial search.

Users can now also simplify the wording of an Overview with a single click. Both features are currently only available for English-language queries conducted in theU.S.

Topics

Andrew Tarantola

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Andrew Tarantola is a journalist with more than a decade reporting on emerging technologies ranging from robotics and machine…

Computing

Chromebooks could soon come with Google’s best AI notetaker

NotebookLM providing summary of YouTube videos.

The Google Chromebook is a slim, barebones machine that relies on Google's suite of tools to handle most tasks, but it's perfect for on-the-go work that doesn't need a powerhouse behind it. Now, these lightweight laptops are about to get a lot better with the addition of NotebookLM. This tool uses Google Gemini to help users take notes, and it's about to start coming on all Chromebooks by default.

This update was spotted by Mishaal Rahman at Android Authority from a change added to the Chromium Gerrit. It suggests — but doesn't yet confirm — that NotebookLM will be included in the list of preinstalled apps on all Chromebooks. If Google goes through with this change, the often-overlooked AI tool would be immediately available to a wider number of users.

Computing

You can now have secret chats with Google’s Gemini in incognito mode

Launching Gemini Deep Research query on Chrome desktop.

You can now have a quick chat with Gemini on your web browser without having to sign in first. And, to speed up the process, the Gemini website even takes you directly to the chat window instead of showing you a landing page first.

This move, spotted by 9To5Google, is pretty smart as it allows unconvinced users to try out the product with no strings attached. With any luck, they'll enjoy the experience and decide to sign up to get access to more of the features.

Computing

I saw Google’s Gemini AI erase copyright evidence. I am deeply worried

Gemini Advanced on the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Update: Google has responded to Digital Trends’ queries. The story has been updated with company’s statement below.
The rise of generative AI has been a fairly messy process, especially from fair usage ethics and copyright perspective. AI giants are inking deals with publishers to avoid legal hassles, while at the same time, they are embroiled in copyright tussles in courts in multiple countries.
As the ravenous appetite for training AI on user data grows, we might be in for another ethical conundrum. Multiple users on X and Reddit have shared demonstrations of how Google’s latest Gemini 2.0 series AI model can remove watermarks from copyright-protected images.
Going by the before/after samples of images, it seems Gemini is doing a fairly good job of removing the watermarks. Notably, it’s not only erasing those banner-style watermarks, but also fairly complex overlays with design and stylized text elements.
https://x.com/ajiteshleo/status/1901484196972945872?s=61
The model in question is the Gemini 2.0 Flash, which was released earlier this year and got a reasoning upgrade, as well. It is worth noting here that you can not remove the watermark if you are using the mobile or desktop version of the Gemini 2.0 Flash model. Trying to do so returns a message like this:
“Removing watermarks from images without the explicit permission of the copyright holder is illegal in most countries. It is important to respect the copyright laws and intellectual property rights. If you want to use an image with a watermark, you should contact the copyright holder and ask for permission.”
You can, however, try and remove the watermark from images in the Google AI Studio. Digital Trends successfully removed watermarks from a variety of images using the Gemini 2.0 Flash (Image Generation) Experimental model.

It is a violation of local copyright laws and any usage of AI-modified material without due consent could land you in legal trouble. Moreover, it is a deeply unethical act, which is also why artists and authors are fighting in court over companies using their work to train AI models without duly compensating them or seeking their explicit nod.

How are the results?
A notable aspect is that the images produced by the AI are fairly high quality. Not only is it removing the watermark artifacts, but also fills the gap with intelligent pixel-level reconstruction. In its current iteration, it works somewhat like the Magic Eraser feature available in the Google Photos app for smartphones.
Furthermore, if the input image is low quality, Gemini is not only wiping off the watermark details but also upscaling the overall picture. .
https://x.com/kaiju_ya/status/1901099096930496720?s=61
The output image, however, has its own Gemini watermark, although this itself can be removed with a simple crop. There are a few minor differences in the final image produced by Gemini after its watermark removal process, such as slightly different color temperatures and fuzzy surface details in photorealistic shots.

nproxy.org