Cramming AI into search results proves Google has forgotten what made it good

A man holding out his hand in a 'no thanks' gesture to an arm offering a handful of bags bearing the Google logo.

In the aftermath of Google’s I/O event, there’s a lot to get excited about - from Google’s first foray into foldable phones with the Pixel Fold to improvements to Bard, Google’s pet AI chatbot.

But it’s not chatbots that intrigued me at I/O; no, Google has more insidious plans for AI than a conversational companion that can now generate images. Search Generative Experience (SGE), a feature arriving with Google’s new ‘Search Labs’ testing platform, promises (or threatens?) to change the way we use search engines forever - and I’m worried about that.