Google says it is considering charging for new premium features on its artificial intelligence (AI) powered search engine.
In a report by the Financial Times (FT) on Wednesday, the move would mark the first time the company has put any of its essential products behind a paywall.
It said this shows the company is still struggling with a technology that threatens its advertising business — almost a year and a half after the launch of ChatGPT.
“Google is looking at options including adding certain AI-powered search features to its premium subscription services, which already offer access to its new Gemini AI assistant in Gmail and Docs, according to three people with knowledge of its plans,” the report said.
“Engineers are developing the technology needed to deploy the service but executives have not yet made a final decision on whether or when to launch it.”
According to Google, its conventional search engine will remain accessible for free, and advertisements will still accompany search results even for subscribers.
“We are not working on or considering an ad-free search experience but we will continue to build new premium capabilities and services to enhance our subscription offerings across Google,” the company said.
“For years, we’ve been reinventing Search to help people access information in the way that’s most natural to them.
“With our generative AI experiments in search, we’ve already served billions of queries, and we’re seeing positive search query growth in all of our major markets. We’re continuing to rapidly improve the product to serve new user needs.
“We don’t have anything to announce right now.”
Since the launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022, Google has been urgently trying to address the competitive challenge posed by the popular chatbot.
On January 18, Google launched two new search functions powered by AI.
The tech company said the new features — Circle to Search and Multi-Search in Lens — will enable users to engage with search functionalities in a more easy and meaningful way.