The new AI research assistant can plan your entire holiday - in minutes and for free!
From the bottom up
If you haven't heard of Deep Research before, you're not alone. As part of Google's rapid expansion into AI tools for smartphones, search, and Google Workspace, the tool has remained rather in the background - partly because it has so far only been available to paying Gemini users.
Deep Research launched in December 2024 and essentially scours the internet for you. Just type in a topic you want to learn about - like kid-friendly ski resorts or nuclear reactor legislation - and the AI assistant "disappears" for a few minutes to scour trusted sources and up-to-date information. It then returns with a detailed and clear summary.
With today's upgrade to Deep Research 2.0 - and making it available to everyone - Google wants to reach not only scientists and academics "obsessed with nuclear fusion" but also everyday users, whether they're planning a vacation, moving, or looking for gardening services in their area.
Aarush Selvan, a product manager at Google, gave The Independent an exclusive preview of the new version of Deep Research ahead of its relaunch. "We're focusing on the types of tasks where previously you had to open up fifty panels in Chrome and do complex information discovery, or you wanted to dig deep into a topic," Selvan says.
The new version of Deep Research uses Google's latest "reasoning" AI model - it continuously explains its thought processes, asks questions and corrects itself as it works, which Google says should lead to more accurate results and a better understanding of how it came to its conclusions.
"This new model actively thinks between steps," Selvan explains. "As a result, it takes a more considered approach to web browsing and can better analyse the information it finds. The goal is to be able to produce more sophisticated and useful reports."
To demonstrate the new version of the tool, Selvan tasked the AI with finding suitable destinations in the Canary Islands - with specific requirements: two adults, one seven-year-old child, an emphasis on good food and entertainment, and results ranked by average daily temperature.
Whereas previously Deep Research simply displayed a list of the websites it searched, the new model also comments on how it progresses: first it creates a broader list of possible destinations, then it scours hotel websites for kids' clubs, looks for restaurants and entertainment venues nearby, pulls historical weather data - and finally compiles it all into a clear report.
"[Deep Research 2.0] can now explain what it found, why it's interesting and what it should look for next. We can show this information to the user in a simple way," Selvan adds. "Another great example we worked on was finding the best summer camp for a child. There are lots of different small camps - some are half-day, some are full-day, each has different prices - and the goal is to get a handle on it."
Today's Deep Research update comes at a time when Google is facing increasing criticism from online publishers. They claim its AI-generated search results and summaries - similar to those produced by Deep Research - are driving down traffic and ad revenue. Version 2.0, however, is more careful about citing sources and linking to original sites. Selvan describes the tool's outputs as a "starting point."
"We want users to be able to easily click through to individual sites. That's why we devote so much screen space to them. We want people to visit these sites, find out what's interesting about them, and understand why they were chosen," he says.
Deep Research with Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking is now available for free on the Gemini app.
