Google SGE: A new way to search, teach, and resist

Abstract

In May 2023, amidst the fanfare and outcries over ChatGPT, Google quietly rolled out early access to new features in Search Labs, a user-based experimental testing ground for Search Generative Experience (SGE). Google pitches SGE as a new way of searching that uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to “understand a topic faster, uncover new viewpoints and insights, and get things done more easily,” but later adds that it also helps make “complex purchase decisions faster and much easier.” 2 Interested users can simply tap the Labs icon in Google Chrome or a Google search on an Android device to sign up. Opting in gives Google the right to collect and analyze your usage, queries, and location for development and machine learning.