What do we know of Google’s AI Powered SGE?
Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) will allow you to make visuals directly from a text prompt, according to the company. Since March, Microsoft has allowed users to create photos from Bing Chat using OpenAI’s DALL-E model, so it’s not unexpected to see Google follow suit.
SGE, which was published as an experimental tool at Google Labs, is meant to change the way people interact with search. Responses from generative AI appeared in mobile and desktop search results. Google announced SGE with great excitement, touting it as the future of AI-assisted search, employing generative AI to provide tailored and nuanced responses to search queries.
How Does SGE Work?
SGE is now a conversational experience that responds to your inquiries in a back-and-forth fashion. You may begin prompts with “draw” or “sketch me a __” and have it produce a completely new image. This is comparable to features in Google Slides and Meet and is powered by Google’s Imagen family of models behind the scenes.
You may type the “draw” and “sketch” prompts right into the Google Search box, and Google may also urge you to create something new in the collection of Image Search results. This is beneficial, according to the company, for “times when you might be looking for a specific image, but you can’t find exactly what you have in mind.”
SGE may create up to four photos at once, with the results displayed above standard search results with a distinctive colored backdrop. When you open a “Generated image” on the side panel, Google will record the precise prompt/description that was used, such as if it was a photorealistic version.
“Export” gives you the choice to save to Google Drive, download to your device, or copy. There is also an option to “Edit” the prompt.
In terms of accountability, Google will remove photos that represent dangerous, deceptive, or explicit information. Prompts featuring famous persons will not be generated, and SGE will not generate photorealistic faces.
To indicate the nature of the image, SGE will use metadata tagging and embedded/invisible watermarking (using Google DeepMind and Cloud’s SynthID).
The company is attempting to ensure that its image-generation technologies are distributed appropriately. The technology isn’t meant to be able to produce photos that violate the company’s generative AI forbidden use clause. Furthermore, Google is restricting image production to individuals aged 18 and up, which means that adolescents who have access to SGE will be unable to utilize it.
What Do The Critics Say About SGE?
The first reaction was very positive, with many tech commentators praising it. However, the disappearance of SGE from Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) in recent weeks has raised suspicions. Several SEO experts have confirmed the lower SGE component frequency in search results.
What is the significance of this retraction? Some industry analysts believe it might be attributable to a variety of issues.
First, there’s the issue of precision. While SGE has shown competence in generating responses, some contend that the quality of these automated responses may have fallen short.
There’s also the problem of public perception to consider. Users may regard AI-generated results to be less reliable or sophisticated than human-crafted ones. Google, on the other hand, has remained tight-lipped, providing no formal reason for the reduced appearance of SGE in its SERPs.
The generative AI capability will be accessible at Google Labs until December 2023 for US users and February 2024 for Indian users. What makes this particularly surprising is Google’s massive investment in generative AI features like SGE, not only monetarily but also in data and research.
Conclusion
While it is too soon to say anything or bid farewell to SGE, its decreased visibility is a trend that should be closely monitored.
Considering the high stakes of AI in the search engine sector, this reversal might signal a rethinking on Google’s part, with ramifications throughout the AI and search landscapes.
Fortunately for SEO pros, a compressed form of SGE in SERPs implies that the generative AI feature is less likely to have a significant influence on organic search traffic.
