Google Lens is getting a generative artificial intelligence upgrade that displays a complete AI-generated response to an uploaded image rather than another image.

Available on Google's iPhone and Android apps that include the Lens feature, it is part of an effort from the search giant to provide a better experience for users.

All you have to do is point your camera at something in front of you or upload a photo and ask a question about it in the search box. Google will generate an answer that includes some accurate information, links to verified sources, and images.

Google has been experimenting with AI in search results for some time. One of the most obvious examples of this is the snippet that appears at the top of Google website search results for queries that do not receive a clear answer from a particular website.

The latest feature is the first time that generative AI has appeared in mainstream results, rather than being part of an experimental feature that users must opt-in to access.

Users can add text queries along with their photos when submitting photos to Lens' Google multi-search. The underlying AI will analyze the image in much the same way it does now, but will attempt to answer the query with a few paragraphs of text.

During a press event, Google used a photo of a plant to demonstrate Lens' new GenAI feature.

Sharing a photo of a potted plant and typing "How do I water this?" resulted in a pop-up with some simple instructions for watering that plant.

Another interesting use case is to identify insects around the house. Usually reserved for Facebook community groups, the AI tool can identify the species and ask if it is dangerous.

One thing I would love to try is something related to food. Share pictures of the ingredients in your fridge and ask people to come up with recipes they would like to try for dinner.

Some of these features are already available through Google's Bard chatbot and by enabling GenAI in the Google Labs search extension. But making it available in all of Google's mobile products would be an important mainstream exposure for this relatively new technology.