Google Maps will employ artificial intelligence to answer questions about a novel restaurant you want to try

Google Maps is there getting a big update this is designed to support you find novel places to visit with AI. Starting this week, you’ll be able to explore more locations using Immersive View and search for specific places based on a descriptive query, such as “what to do with friends in the evening.”

Google will then employ its Gemini AI model to create “inspiring collections” that fit this description. For night options, Google Maps may show locations classified as “speakeasy” or “live music” venues. Meanwhile, regular search results remain below these collections.

But that’s not the extent of the AI ​​features Google is adding to Maps. When you tap a location, you’ll see AI-generated summaries of user reviews along with a prompt to “Ask Map about this place.” Here you can enter a question and Maps will employ Gemini to provide an AI-generated answer based on information gathered from reviews.

During the press conference, Google Maps chief Miriam Daniel showed how this could work by selecting a restaurant and asking, “Is it a quiet atmosphere?” Google Maps then returned a response that the location was “live and cozy.” Below the answer, you’ll see the reviews Gemini based its answer on. These features will be available this week in the US on Android and iOS devices, building on the artificial intelligence integration that Google began experimenting with earlier this year.

“We wanted to make sure that everything we showed in this experience was fresh and factual,” Daniel said. “There are 100 million updates every day, and we can take that refreshed, fresh information and build on the Gemini results… making sure the results show real places on the map.”