Jamaine Punzalan

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<p>Google on Tuesday showed off new plans to turn its famous search bar into an AI assistant that can book restaurants, track news and contact businesses -- just by asking a question.</p><p>After three years of struggling to keep up with <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/5/13/-it-basically-ruined-my-life-losing-grip-on-reality-while-using-chatgpt-1115">ChatGPT</a>, Google is racing to roll out artificial intelligence tools that build on its grip over online search.</p><p>The company&#x27;s Gemini AI app now has 900 million monthly users, twice as many as last year. Its AI-powered search feature, AI Mode, is also taking off, with a claimed one billion monthly users worldwide.</p><p>On Tuesday, at Google&#x27;s annual developer conference near its California headquarters in Mountain View, CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled the next step: Gemini Spark, a personal AI agent available starting next week for top-tier subscribers in the United States.</p><p>Google&#x27;s search engine will also get a new upgrade for US users this summer: always-on AI agents that can alert you to news, book activities, and manage shopping lists.</p><p>The changes to Google search, which the company said were its biggest in 25 years, will also see a widened search box to make room for more complicated queries people use for chatbots.</p><p>&quot;I love how search has become less about individual queries and feels more like an ongoing conversation, giving users deeper insights and connecting you with the vastness of the web,&quot; Pichai told journalists.</p><p>Many of the features ride a wave of &quot;agentic&quot; AI that has gripped Silicon Valley since Austrian developer Peter Steinberger in late 2025 launched OpenClaw -- a platform that lets AI book flights, manage emails and build apps from chat prompts.</p><p><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/2/3/openclaw-s-ai-agent-does-everything-even-social-media-1108">OpenAI hired OpenClaw&#x27;s creator </a>earlier this year and the tech giants are now racing to bring agentic features to mainstream users, despite security concerns and the soaring computing costs that come with them.</p><p>To stay ahead of rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, Google on Tuesday also launched the latest version of its AI model, Gemini 3.5 Flash.</p><p>Google says it runs four times faster than top competing models -- including Anthropic&#x27;s Claude Opus and OpenAI&#x27;s ChatGPT 5.5 -- while performing at a similar level.</p><p>The model is now the default across the Gemini app, AI Mode search and other Google services. A more powerful version, Gemini 3.5 Pro, is expected next month.</p><p>Google also announced it was teaming up with <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/5/12/microsoft-boss-proud-of-profit-making-openai-investment-1040">OpenAI</a> on one front: to help stop the spread of fake or manipulated content, the ChatGPT maker has adopted SynthID, Google&#x27;s tool for invisibly watermarking AI-generated images.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>END OF CLICKS?</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Google&#x27;s growing AI features could spell trouble for news websites and online publishers.</p><p>By keeping users inside its own apps and tools, Google makes it less likely that people will click through to outside websites -- cutting into their traffic and ad revenue.</p><p>Google searches already end 58 percent of the time without users clicking on any website, according to a lawsuit filed against the company by Penske Media, which publishes the Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone.</p><p>In Europe, a major publishers&#x27; group has complained to the European Commission, saying Google uses news content to fuel its AI summaries without paying for it.</p><p>France is the only major European country where AI Mode is still unavailable, and remains at the center of a bitter fight between Google and French publishers.</p><p>However, Google&#x27;s legal troubles are not limited to Europe.</p><p>A US court found it guilty of illegally monopolizing online search in 2024, and the company could still be forced to break up parts of its business.</p><p>The Justice Department in February appealed a ruling that had stopped short of making Google sell its Chrome browser.</p><p>A hearing is not expected until the end of the year at the earliest, or possibly 2027.</p><div><strong>MORE AI STORIES:</strong></div><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/2/26/where-ai-lives-southeast-asia-s-data-centre-boom-1151">Where AI lives: Southeast Asia&#x27;s data center boom</a><br/><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/5/17/pope-leo-calls-for-usage-of-ai-to-respect-truth-of-humankind-2159">Pope Leo calls for usage of AI to respect &#x27;truth of humankind&#x27;</a><br/><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/technology/2026/5/20/google-unveils-smart-glasses-taking-on-meta-0822">Google unveils smart glasses, taking on Meta</a></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cYMSCAY4glA?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Google on Tuesday showed off new plans to turn its famous search bar into an AI assistant that can book restaurants, track news and contact businesses -- just by asking a question.</p>

Google on Tuesday showed off new plans to turn its famous search bar into an AI assistant that can book restaurants, track news and contact businesses -- just by asking a question.

Google wants its search bar to act on your behalf in AI revamp

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Google wants its search bar to act on your behalf in AI revamp

Agence France-Presse

Published May 20, 2026 09:09 AM PHT

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