Google might charge for AI-powered search

The American tech giant Google might soon charge for searches powered by generative artificial intelligence, or AI. The idea of such a subscription-based internet search could redefine the industry, prompting every player in market to adopt a similar business model in a bid to cover cost and make profits.

The blueprint involves Google providing exclusive new search features to premium users who pay for the service, according to the Financial Times. If it happens, Google’s impending move to paywall AI-powered search would follow the decision that the company took in February to add a paid tier for subscribers wishing to access its chatbot Gemini.

The February paywall, called Google One AI Premium, enables premium customers to use the AI assistant Gemini while working with software including Gmail and Google Docs.

The company, however, has no plans to put its traditional search engine behind a paywall. Google the search engine would remain free to use and advertisements would continue appearing along with search results, for subscribers, too.

In response to a query, Google informed the news agency Reuters in an emailed statement: “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.”

Google seems to have adopted an unhurried approach in bringing features of its “experimental generative experience” to its main search engine ever since the company started testing its AI-powered search facility last year.

Meanwhile, the shares of Google’s parent company Alphabet saw a slump of around 1 per cent in extended trade on Thursday. The drop came in the wake of rivals OpenAI and Microsoft laying out plans to set up a $100-billion data centre for AI training last week, and Mark Zuckerberg declaring in January this year that he intends to spend at least $9 billion on Nvidia GPUs.