Google adds an AI Mode shortcut to Chrome on mobile (www.engadget.com)

Google has begun rolling out an AI Mode shortcut to Chrome’s new tab page on Android and iOS in the US, placing it prominently beneath the browser’s search bar. The shortcut exposes the conversational assistant — introduced in March via Labs and widely rolled out after Google I/O in May — as a one‑tap entry point for multi‑part questions, follow‑ups and relevant links. Google says the button will expand to about 160 more countries and add languages such as Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese in the near future. For the AI/ML community this matters because making the model harder to avoid on mobile dramatically increases potential usage and data volume, accelerating real‑world feedback loops, localization requirements and scaling pressures. Technically, the feature highlights Google’s push toward multi‑turn, context‑aware interactions embedded directly into the browser UI rather than a standalone app, which affects latency, on‑device vs cloud inference design, and content‑moderation pipelines. It also raises product and competitive implications — a subtle UI nudge that could shift search behavior, ad engagement and cross‑platform assistant adoption — while increasing the need for robust privacy, safety and infrastructure solutions as usage expands.