How Often Does Google AI Actually Generate A Response?

[Kaodi]

For those of you who are more informed about the particulars of tech than I: when I Google something and there is an AI overview at the top of the page (a feature I never turned on, but I guess never turned off either?) did it actually generate this result on the spot or does the "Google AI" at the very least first refer to an index of all prior queries it has received, i.e. it searches its own results?

 

[Scribe]

For those of you who are more informed about the particulars of tech than I: when I Google something and there is an AI overview at the top of the page (a feature I never turned on, but I guess never turned off either?) did it actually generate this result on the spot or does the "Google AI" at the very least first refer to an index of all prior queries it has received, i.e. it searches its own results?

It essentially is summarizing the most relevant Google hits I believe. You need to click into the referenced links to see the source data.