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2 hours ago
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Now that it knows it won't be forced to sell its browser, Google is cramming AI into every vacant corner of Chrome it can find, whether you like it or not.
According to Google's VP of product for Chrome Mike Torres, this is the "biggest upgrade to Chrome in its history," provided you consider transforming Chrome into yet another AI browser by adding a Gemini button to it to be an upgrade.
The Gemini-ification of Chrome, which is rolling out beginning today (only for macOS and Windows users in the US with their Chrome language set to English), will allow users to do things like get an AI-simplified interpretation of any webpage they're on, summarize info from multiple tabs in one response, comb through one's web history or content from Google apps, and pull the usual tricks AI browsers already offer.
Those aren't the only ways Google intends to inject AI into Chrome in the coming months, though.
Google will also be making a change to the omnibox (aka address bar), putting a button that queries "AI Mode," Google's chatbot-like search experience, on its right side. However, in good news for content creators who would lose even more traffic if AI mode became the default, the company confirmed to The Register that hitting Enter will still take you to regular Google search results. Expect that to show up later this month, per Google's Chrome VP Parisa Tabriz.
For those who think booking an appointment online or ordering groceries for delivery from the comfort of their own home meets the definition of a "tedious task," Google is also planning to add agentic capabilities to Chrome in the coming months.
"You tell Gemini in Chrome what you want to get done, and it acts on web pages on your behalf, while you focus on other things," Torres wrote. "It can be stopped at any time so you're in control."
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The Chocolate Factory is also planning to improve its ability to block online scams with Gemini by giving it the ability to "stop sites that use fake viruses or fake giveaways to trick you," and will begin using AI to learn a user's web preferences to help it determine if a website that wants users to allow it to send notifications should be considered spam.
Here's a hint: If a website wants to send notifications, it's probably spam regardless of what Gemini thinks.
Chrome will also start using AI agents to automate password changes "with a single click," but only on supported websites, which it lists as including "Coursera, Spotify, Duolingo, H&M and more."
Given the way AI has been force-fed to users by big tech in the past, the first question to come to mind is whether these features will be opt-in or opt-out. We're guessing it'll likely be the latter.
We're also curious whether there will be any good way to turn these features off and whether Google intends to use information gleaned through these features to train its AIs, but we didn't hear back from the company when we asked those questions.
On an unrelated note, anyone got a good browser to recommend? ®
Updated at 2158 with Google's clarification that searching AI mode from the Chrome omnibox will require you to hit a new search button. Hitting Enter will still take you to regular search.
