You Came to Google to Search. Now You’re Chatting With AI

These changes are the culmination of a decade-long strategy from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who declared in 2016 that Google would be an “AI-first company.” In April, Pichai told TIME that Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. I view AI as the most profound way we can make progress against that mission.”

These shifts mean that many people, especially older users who would never dream of creating an OpenAI account, are acclimating to chatting with an AI chatbot through Google’s AI Mode. Robby Stein, vice president of product for Google Search, says that for some older users, “this is the first time they’ve experienced AI … What we’ve built is trying to be the most natural, easy-to-understand experience, where they can expand it, they can ask a follow-up question, and they can get the info they want now.”