Simon Willison has commented on Google's new "AI Mode." He revealed that when he previously discussed the search performance of GPT-5, he felt that Google's efforts were relatively lacking.
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Simon Willison Praises Google's AI Mode as Fast and Comparable to GPT-5 Search
This article is a translation. Read the Japanese original
However, after testing it, he evaluated that AI Mode provides quality very similar to GPT-5's search and that the response speed for results is fast. He stated that Google has successfully leveraged its search infrastructure to build an excellent AI-assisted search experience.
On the other hand, he pointed out a point of frustration: while AI Mode displays messages such as "Performing 5 searches," it does not show exactly which search queries were executed. He stated that a similar issue exists in the Gemini app and that this lack of transparency undermines reliability.
Additionally, he confirmed that this feature was unavailable while he was residing in the EU.
Source: Google's new AI mode is good, actually（HN 129pt・66コメント） (HN Search (backfill), 2025-09-07)