Google experiments with sending Chrome searches straight to AI
A Google VP confirmed that this feature was released in error and wasn't planned for wide usage.
Google appeared to be mulling the idea of giving you the option to go straight to AI Mode for search queries. Windows Report has discovered a new hidden hidden flag in Chrome Canary, the browser's most experimental variant meant for developers and early adopters, that will take you to AI Mode by default. The publication has confirmed that the test feature works when enabled and has noted that it looks a lot more complete and ready to ship than typical prototypes.
Google's VP of Search Engineering, Rajan Patel, quickly shot this down though with a post on X. "This was an error. We're not planning to make AI Mode the default for Chrome searches," he wrote. That's about as unambiguous a statement as you can expect on the matter.
Hey Glenn– this was an error. We're not planning to make AI Mode the default for Chrome searches.
— Rajan Patel (@rajanpatel) June 5, 2026
Further more, Windows Report says it found a note from the author of the flag's code that says: "This is just for exploration. There are no current plans to push this live."
When you do search queries on the regular Chrome today, Google will take you to the "All" page that includes an AI Overview with a summary of the results you get, followed by blue links that lead to individual websites. You would have to tab over to AI Mode if you want to use it. But when the flag is enabled in Canary, you're taken straight to AI Mode, which looks and acts more like a chatbot conversation than your typical Google search results page.
While Google says this isn't its intention, the company has been putting more and more AI features into its products recently. At I/O 2026, it launched the new "Intelligent Search Box," which can take videos, images, files and even Chrome tabs as inputs for search queries. After that announcement, DuckDuckGo experienced a surge in installs and usage of its no-AI search website, most likely from people looking for alternatives that won't try to force them to use artificial intelligence.
If you do want to see the experimental feature for yourself, open Chrome Canary and go to chrome://flags. You'll see a new option that reads "Fulfill Searchbox Queries in AI Mode." Its description says it will work on Mac, Windows, Linux and ChromeOS.
Update, June 5, 2026, 3:05PM ET: This article has been updated to note that Google has said this was an error that won't be coming to Chrome.