Google has updated Chrome with three AI tools for sorting tabs, making new themes, and writing text for you

The use of generative AI, machine learning algorithms that can produce images, text, or even sound, is rapidly spread across the software industry. The likes of Photoshop and Windows, plus countless others, all now sport a simple button that claims to magically do things that we simply couldn't do before. And now it's the turn of Chrome, as Google has added three AI tools to its browser, though only for US folks at the moment.

Just like all of the software giants, Google has been investing heavily in machine learning for a good while, so it was only a matter of time before the fruits of such labours would be leveraged into its applications. In the case of Chrome, the new v121 update includes a new field in the Settings page, labelled 'Experimental AI.'

Unfortunately, as a resident of the UK, I can't actually see how the options are displayed but Google says that they're in that particular section. It's also worth noting that if you're using an enterprise or educational account, then the new features will be disabled for now.

The first tool basically uses machine learning to organise all of the tabs you may have open. As someone who never has more than 15 open at any one time, it's not something I'd ever use, but if you're a tab hoarder (or someone who just never closes them), then having something that automatically suggests and creates tab groups for you could be handy.

I can't say that I'm overly convinced by how useful it really is, partly because I can't test it myself, but mostly because the task itself isn't very arduous. I mean, how many people think to themselves 'I simply cannot organise my tabs and need help from an algorithm'?

I have similar feelings about the second tool, which uses a spot of generative AI to create new themes for your Chrome account. It works just like most text-to-image models do: Type in a few words, select a few options to control how the generation process works, and then select your choice from one of six final results.

The example