Some Google Search users are starting to see the AI Mode search chatbot in the wild. Several user posts on X and Threads show that Google is testing different places to display the AI Mode tab – in some examples, it appears in the search bar itself, next to the “Search by Image” button, while in others it replaces the “I’m feeling lucky” button below the search bar.
The appearance of the AI Mode button also differs slightly: some users see a rainbow frame that rotates when they hover over it. In another example, when AI Mode replaced “I’m Feeling Lucky,” the rainbow frame seems to be the default design and makes the AI chatbot button stand out among Google’s other search-focused offerings.
Google said on May 1 that a “small percentage” of people in the United States will soon see the “AI Mode” option in Google Search, but screenshots of these tests give us some idea of where it might be placed when (or if) it becomes available to the general public. Google spokesperson Ashley Thompson told The Verge that currently, the AI mode in Search is only available to users of the Google Labs experimental environment.
“We often test different ways for people to access our useful features,” Thompson said. “This is just one of many experiments.”
It is not guaranteed that the “I’m lucky” option will be officially replaced by an AI mode, but even knowing that Google is considering such a possibility could be upsetting for people who use this niche feature. The button that redirects users directly to the first web page of any search results has been an integral part of Google’s homepage since the search engine was launched. Perhaps in this way, Google is trying to show that AI Mode’s answers to search queries in the form of chatbots are more effective than the traditional search results page, which allows users to bypass it.
