Google is looking at a number of options to monetize its premium AI-powered search features, according to a report Wednesday from Financial Times which cited people familiar with the matter.

One proposal involved folding AI search features into Google's existing premium subscription.

“AI search is more expensive to compute than traditional Google search processes,” said Heather Dawe, principal data scientist at digital transformation consultancy UST. Guardian. “So in charging for AI search, Google will at least seek to offset these costs.”

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We tested the core Google AI search experience, which is currently being tested in beta for select users. AI generates an answer or response to a search query, including links to resources in its answer.

Regular search results are populated under the AI ​​chatbot response.

^{Credit: Entrepreneur}

This approach combines Google's familiar search interface with the results that an AI-powered chatbot like Gemini AI or ChatGPT would provide in response to the same question.

It did not require anything extra, such as logging into an external application, making it intuitive even for a non-AI-adapted individual.

Google processes 5.9 million searches per minute, according to Semrushand about 1.5 billion people are using AI chatbots, according to a Tidy the survey.

The latest AI search features released by Google include mark (or highlight or scribble) to ask, which allows users to circle anything on their Android screen, including parts of an image. Google's AI kicks in to perform an object or item search across apps like Calendar and Maps.

^{A wall displays Google's new AI feature, Circle to Search, in Barcelona, ​​Spain, on March 25, 2024. (Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)}

Google customers who want to use the company's Gemini AI assistant in Gmail, Docs or other Google services already have to sign up for Google One AI Premium subscription, which costs $20 per month.

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