Brave Search's new Answer with AI feature is now available. The feature replaces AI Summarizer, which was used on Brave Search previously to provide summaries based on user queries.

In a nutshell: Answer with AI works like an instant answers feature. It returns information to the user using multiple sources, including Brave Search's index.

A search for "how difficult is Japanese to learn" returns a large paragraph of AI generated content at the top of the search results. Context is provided, including links.

The AI feature is not limited to text-only responses. It supports rich media as well and may return it in its answer to the user's query.

Brave Software notes that Answers with AIs responds to informational queries automatically. Users may, however, activate the AI button in the search field to get a response to other queries as well.

Brave Software sees Answers with AI as a significant upgrade of its AI Summarizer. Released in 2023, it returned direct answers to user queries based on web search results.

What you need to know about Answers with AI

Brave Software claims that the feature is unique in several ways:

• Privacy-preserving, according to Brave.
• Near-instant answers.
• AI uses Brave's search index as its source.

Answer with AI is available for free to all users. It supports multiple languages. Full support is offered for searches in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Brave Software says that other languages work as well, but that some responses may be in English.

Answers with AI uses "up-to-date, reliable data" according to Brave Software. The provided answers take multiple intents into consideration.

Company engineers have divided intents into several categories, for example, navigational, informational, and commercial.

Queries like "how to get from Athens airport to the acropolis", "what are the top PS5 games of 2024", and "how to bypass ads on YouTube" are all answered by Answers with AI.

Word of warning: Each AI-generated response has a disclaimer that asks users to "verify critical facts".

How to disable Brave Search's Answer with AI

Brave Search users who do not want Answer with AI responses to their queries may turn the feature off in the settings.

Here is how that is done:

1. Load https://search.brave.com/settings in the browser's address bar.
2. Scroll down to Answer with AI.
3. Toggle the feature to off.

Bonus tip: there you may also disable anonymous usage metrics while you are at it.

Closing Words

Answers with AI worked surprisingly well during tests. While it is necessary to verify the output, as it is not guaranteed that the information is accurate, the same can be said for any third-party source of information on the Internet.

Granted, information published on trustworthy websites are usually correct, whereas the same cannot be said for the output of generative AI tools.

Webmasters may want to take note that the feature will likely reduce traffic coming from search engines in the long run. Then again, AI depends on human created information to function at all.

Do you use Brave Search? What is your take on AI responses to user queries in search engines?