The death of the deep dive why Googles new AI search wants to do your thinking for you

Date:
Mon, 25 May 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Description:
Googles new AI search tools promise to save time, but they may also reshape how we think, explore and navigate the internet.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Google is changing the way we search and, rather unsurprisingly, its now all about AI.

At its annual developer conference, Google I/O 2026 , the company unveiled a huge overhaul of how search will work going forward. There are several big updates , which include a redesigned search bar, more Gemini integration, AI agents that can complete tasks for you and shopping tools that are designed
to automate every step of the buying process, from price tracking to
checkout. On one level, the appeal here is obvious. If these new features
work as efficiently as Google says they will, itll be a faster, more personalized way to search where AI helps handle the more boring and repetitive tasks so you dont have to that sounds genuinely useful to me. Latest Videos From You may like 'This new search box does not mean that
you'll only get AI responses': Google's Search makeover incorporates yet more AI, but Google promises to leave room for classic results "Google Search is now AI Search" equals the worst thing to happen to the internet since social media, except this time we can all see it coming I tried Googles new live AI search and it barely feels like search anymore

But the more I looked through the announcements, the more it felt like Google wasnt just redesigning search but the whole process of discovery itself. And
I think that raises much bigger questions about critical thinking, the future of the open web and what happens when even more of our decisions are outsourced to AI. The hidden cost of frictionless search Google already
offers both a dedicated AI Mode and AI Overviews, the AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of your search results. But what the company is announcing now feels much bigger.

The most significant shift might be the redesign of Googles iconic search
bar. Itll look different and behave more like a chatbot , encouraging you to have a conversation with Gemini rather than type in traditional search queries. Itll also make it easier to ask follow-up questions and trigger new AI-powered features.

One of the other new features allows AI agents to continuously monitor the
web for whatever youre looking for, whether thats an apartment within your budget or tickets for an event. These agents can then alert you when the
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Another can help book services for you, like restaurant reservations or pet care appointments. Google is also experimenting with a universal shopping
cart that pulls products from different retailers into one place

Looking at all of these new features as a whole, its clear what direction
were heading in. Google no longer wants to simply help you search the web. It wants to filter information, compare results and increasingly act on your behalf. And for a lot of people, that will feel genuinely revolutionary. (Image credit: Getty Images / Bloomberg) Cognitive decline I recently spent weeks checking apartment listings multiple times a day because email alerts never arrived fast enough. Having an AI agent constantly scanning listings
for me probably would have saved me a lot of time and stress. Most people can probably think of some other repetitive digital task thats been bugging them that theyd happily outsource immediately. What to read next Googles AI will now show a preview of perspectives from Reddit and social media Google Search is getting its biggest upgrade in decades here are 5 new features Agentic Search Optimization reshapes brand visibility in AI search

But the more I think about Googles announcements, the more uneasy I feel
about what else might disappear soon in the name of efficiency.

For years, searching for something online has involved a whole set of invisible mental processes. Like comparing sources, reading reviews,
following strange rabbit holes, evaluating contradictions, deciding which information felt right and trustworthy and which didnt. Sometimes even changing your mind halfway through.

AI search aims to compress all of that down into a single synthesized answer that requires very little from us. Like a lot of new AI tools, that certainly sounds convenient. But it may also fundamentally change our relationship with thinking itself.

Weve covered some of the early concerns about the way over-reliance on AI is changing the way we think, work and feel. Earlier in the year, I spoke to journalist Ellen Scott about what she calls smoothout , the feeling of being disengaged, tired and demotivated at work because youve used AI too much.

And newer evidence is mounting. Researchers are starting to examine what happens when people offload too much cognitive effort onto AI systems, and it doesnt look good.

One of the most widely discussed examples was a 2025 preprint study from the MIT Media Lab , which found that students using ChatGPT to write essays
showed lower brain connectivity, weaker recall and less sense of ownership over their work compared to those using search engines or no tools at all.

Another study from Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University found that people who trusted AI systems more heavily tended to engage in less critical thinking during workplace tasks.

The concern here isnt that AI suddenly makes people unintelligent. But its that cognitive skills work a bit like muscles. So the less frequently you use them, the easier it becomes to rely on external systems instead while those skills slowly erode over time.

And Googles vision of search seems to be built around reducing the amount of thinking users need to do themselves. Liz Reid, vice president and head of search at Google, during the Google I/O Developers Conference, 2026. (Image credit: Getty Images / Bloomberg) The problem with getting exactly what you want But theres another concern here too: what happens to the strange, messy and serendipitous nature of the open web?

Searching online can unearth hidden gems. Im sure we all know what it feels like to go searching for one thing only to accidentally discover something else. Maybe you clicked through obscure forums, badly designed blogs,
personal websites and niche communities. Sometimes the best discoveries came from not fully knowing what you were even looking for in the first place.

Even using my apartment example, the irony is I eventually chose somewhere that didnt perfectly match the criteria I originally thought that I wanted. Which means that if Id delegated the entire process to an AI agent optimizing for my exact inputs, I probably wouldnt have even seen it.

That feels like the paradox of most highly efficient AI systems. They can become incredibly good at giving us exactly what we ask for while narrowing the chance for surprise, experimentation and genuine discovery.

And let's not forget that sometimes wasting time researching things online is actually enjoyable. I know for me that it can feel immersive, absorbing and genuinely fun. That often gets lost in all of the conversations about AI and efficiency.

But the searching is part of the experience. Which is similar to the way people talk about AI-generated art or writing. Even if the end result looks impressive, many people would argue the creativity was never just about the finished product. The meaning came from the process itself. The
experimenting, wandering, struggling, revising and discovering all kinds of things along the way. AI search might eat the internet Theres also a big contradiction underneath all of these new AI changes that I can't stop thinking about, which is that Googles AI search experience may end up
reducing the need to visit websites directly. Publishers have already
reported declining traffic due to AI summaries and chatbots that answer questions before users click through to the original source.

And yet the open web is also the very thing these AI systems depend on. Which means that if fewer people visit independent websites, fewer people have incentives to create them. And if fewer websites exist, the entire ecosystem supplying original reporting, reviews, ideas and information to AI systems could be threatened too.

Thats what makes Googles AI announcements feel strange. Google appears to be cannibalizing part of the very web that made it powerful in the first place.

Maybe this is simply the next phase of the internet, where a smaller number
of giant platforms control more and more of our interactions with information while what we knew of the web of the past becomes sort of obsolete.

Or maybe, what I secretly hope, is that people will eventually realize that convenience alone is not enough. Because some of the things being optimized away here were never meaningless inefficiencies. They were part of how we explored, discovered, evaluated and experienced information. So yes, AI-powered search will probably buy us back a lot of time. But at what cost? Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/the-death-of-the-deep-dive-w hy-googles-new-ai-search-wants-to-do-your-thinking-for-you


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