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AI-powered Google Search now available in SA

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 09 Nov 2023
The generative AI-powered search feature helps users find specific answers quickly, says Google.
The generative AI-powered search feature helps users find specific answers quickly, says Google.

Google has rolled out generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for its search engine across Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the internet giant, its generative AI in Search feature allows users to uncover new viewpoints and insights, and multiple perspectives, showing more links to a wider range of sources on the results page.

The new feature, which is already offered in other parts of the globe, was made available locally from yesterday as part of Google's Search Labs and the Search Generative Experience (SGE), via opt-in.

With the generative AI search capabilities, people will see an AI-powered overview of key information to consider. This will help users find specific answers more quickly, says the company.

“We’re now taking more of the work out of searching," says Wambui Kinya, Google GM for Search in Africa.

“We’re imagining a super-charged Search that does the heavy lifting for you, so you’ll be able to understand a topic faster, uncover new viewpoints and insights, and get things done more easily. This SGE is the first step we’re taking in this journey, and part of our vision to make Search radically more helpful.”

This conversational experience enables users to intuitively learn more about the topic they’re exploring and context will be carried over from question to question, to help them more naturally continue their exploration, notes Google.

As part of Google taking a more responsible approach to AI, the company says it has trained the models used in SGE to uphold Search’s high bar for quality, which will continue to improve over time.

“These hallmark systems have been fine-tuned for decades, but will also have additional guardrails, like limiting the types of queries where generative AI capabilities will appear.”

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