Google Search’s AI Mode gets an update to ‘see’ your homework

Google is bringing a bunch of new features to AI Mode, and is positioning the update as a way to help students study for tests or dig deeper into what they’re learning. Today, the company announced that it will now let users upload images to AI Mode on desktop, allowing them to ask questions about what they’re seeing, whether it’s a homework math problem or a plant they want to learn more about.

In May, Google built AI Mode into Search in the US, which searches the web and summarizes its findings for users. It also lets users ask follow-up questions, as well as have a back-and-forth conversation with the tool. Google launched the ability to upload images to AI Mode while still testing the feature in April; adding it to desktop could make it easier for students to get help with projects or assignments that they’re working on.

Other changes coming soon include a test of real-time camera sharing in AI Mode, building upon the Search Live features it already has. Now, instead of just having a spoken conversation with AI Mode’s custom version of Gemini, users can point their camera at whatever they have a question about and ask about it aloud. This feature is coming to mobile users in the US who have opted into the AI Mode Labs experiment.

In addition, Google is trying to make it easier to access Lens in Chrome by displaying a new “Ask Google about this page” option when users click on the address bar in Chrome. When users select this option, the tool will let users choose what to search on the page and then generate an AI Overview directly in the browser’s sidebar. Google also plans on letting users ask additional questions about a Lens response by choosing “AI Mode” at the top of Lens results or selecting “Dive deeper” at the bottom of the AI Overview.

Further out, Google will start letting users upload PDFs to AI Mode and pull in files from their Google Drive. The company is testing Canvas in AI Mode on desktop as well.

Google first launched Canvas in Gemini in March, serving as a workspace where users can ask Gemini to help refine their writing, build apps, create games, generate interactive quizzes, and more. The company’s announcement says bringing Canvas to AI Mode can help students create study guides by pulling together information in the Canvas sidebar, allowing them to tweak its output in real time with additional questions.

Canvas in AI Mode will be available in the “coming weeks” for US desktop users who enable the experiment through Search Labs.