SAN FRANCISCO, March 5 (Reuters) - Alphabet's

Google launched an experimental version of its search engine on

Wednesday that completely eliminates its classic 10 blue links

in favor of an AI-generated summary.

The new feature, available to subscribers of Google One AI

Premium, can be accessed via the results page for any search

query by clicking on a tab labeled "AI Mode" to the side of

existing options like Images and Maps.

"We've heard from power users that they want AI responses

for even more of their searches," Robby Stein, a vice president

of product, said in a blog post.

Google One AI Premium is a $19.99 per month plan that

provides extra cloud storage and special access to some AI

features.

Google currently displays AI Overviews, summaries that are

increasingly appearing atop the traditional hyperlinks to

relevant webpages, for users in more than 100 countries. It

began adding advertisements to AI Overviews last May.

With AI Mode, users see a more comprehensive AI summary have

been replaced by a search bar for asking follow-up questions.

Google said AI Mode is being powered by a custom version of its

Gemini 2.0 model with reasoning capabilities that make it better

equipped to handle complex queries.

Alphabet's $350 billion in 2024 revenue was primarily driven by

search-related advertising. But it is facing the biggest

challenge to its core business in years from AI challengers led

by Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI, which added search

functions to ChatGPT last October.

Google has made integrating AI into search its biggest bet,

investment chief Ruth Porat said at the Reuters NEXT conference

in December.

In February, edtech company Chegg ( CHGG ) sued Google, accusing

the previews of eroding demand for original content and

undermining publishers' ability to compete.