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Google tests sending Chrome searches directly to AI
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Google is experimenting with sending Chrome searches directly to AI.
The company is reportedly bypassing existing search results in test browsers.
Google seems to be mulling over the idea of giving you the option to jump straight into AI mode when using a search term. The Windows report has discovered a new hidden flag in Chrome Canary, the most experimental variant of the browser for developers and early adopters, that puts it in AI mode by default. The publication confirmed that the test function works once enabled, and noted that it appears to be much more complete and ready for release than a typical prototype.
Currently, when you perform a search in regular Chrome, Google takes you to an "All" page with an AI overview with a summary of the results obtained and blue links to individual websites. To use AI mode, you need to go to AI mode. However, activating the flag in Canary takes you straight into AI mode, which looks and acts more like a chatbot conversation than a typical Google search results page.
Google hasn't publicly announced this test, but it has been adding more and more AI features to its products recently. At I/O 2026, we launched a new 'Intelligent Search Box' that allows you to use videos, images, files, and even Chrome tabs as search inputs. Since that announcement, DuckDuckGo has seen a surge in installations and usage of its AI-free search website. This is most likely due to people looking for alternatives that don't force them to use artificial intelligence.
If you want to see the experimental feature for yourself, open Chrome Canary and go to chrome://flags. You will see a new option called “Run search box queries in AI mode.” The description says it works on Mac, Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS. But as of now, it doesn't seem like Google has any concrete plans to release it any time soon. According to the Windows report, I found the following note from the author of the flag code: “This is just for exploration purposes. There are currently no plans to pursue this in real time.”
