(April 4): Google is considering charging for new “premium” features run by artificial intelligence (AI), the Financial Times (FT) reported, marking the first time it would put any of its core product behind a paywall.

The tech giant is mulling options such as adding certain AI search features to its premium subscription services, the FT reported, citing three unnamed people familiar with the plans. The shares slid less than 1% in extended trading after the news was reported.

“We’re continuing to rapidly improve the product to serve new user needs,” a spokesperson said. “We’re not working on or considering an ad-free search experience. As we’ve done many times before, we’ll continue to build new premium capabilities and services to enhance our subscription offerings across Google.”

The potential move suggests the Alphabet Inc unit still hasn’t figured out how to incorporate the new, fast-growing technology without threatening its essential advertising business.

In February, Google added a new paid tier to its consumer subscription service that gives people access to its latest artificial intelligence model, Gemini. Users who pay for that subscription, called Google One AI Premium, are able to use its advanced Gemini chatbot and access the generative AI model in popular services such as Gmail and Google Docs.

Engineers are developing the technology to roll out the service but executives haven’t decided whether or when to launch it, according to the report. Google’s ubiquitous search engine would continue to be free and ads would appear alongside search results even to subscribers, the FT said.

Ever since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, Google has found itself on the defensive in the face of the wildly popular chatbot. ChatGPT’s ability to give answers to queries in a narrative voice has forced Google to rethink its traditional list of blue links to websites and the lucrative ads that appear alongside them.

Last year, Google began testing its own AI-powered search service that combines the personalised, detailed narrative in addition to links to websites and advertising. But it has been slow to add features from its “search generative experience” to its main search engine.