Google is launching a global expansion of AI Mode, its feature that allows users to ask complex questions and follow-ups to dig deeper on a topic directly within Search, the company announced on Thursday. The tech giant is also bringing new agentic and personalized capabilities to the feature.

According to a Thursday blog post, Google is beginning to roll out agentic capabilities to its AI Mode. For now, the only agentic capability available is restaurant reservations. Users will be able to ask AI mode to find them a reservation that matches their specific needs, including party size, date, time, location, and preferred food type.

It’s the most transparent estimate yet from one of the big AI companies, and a long-awaited peek behind the curtain for researchers.

For a while now, the tech industry has been shifting into the “agentic AI’ era. Simply put, it’s where an AI performs a multi-step task for you, like acting on a request such as “reserve a table for six at the nearest ramen shop with at least a 4-start rating on Wednesday.

The U.S. government struck a deal with Google to use its artificial intelligence and other applications for 47 cents, underbidding other AI partners.

Earlier this year, MIT Technology Review published a comprehensive series on AI and energy, at which time none of the major AI companies would reveal their per-prompt energy usage. Google’s new publication, at last, allows for a peek behind the curtain that researchers and analysts have long hoped for. Read the full story.

Amid growing concerns about the environmental impact of artificial intelligence, Google says it has calculated the energy required for its Gemini AI service: Sending a single text prompt consumes as much energy as watching television for nine seconds.

For the climate concerned, the rise of the AI-reliant internet query is a cause for alarm. Many people have turned to ChatGPT and other services for simple questions. And even basic Google searches include an AI-derived result.