MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — On Tuesday, Google introduced an updated version of its search engine that will often prioritize answers generated by artificial intelligence rather than traditional website links. This change aims to speed up the process of finding information but may also impact the revenue generated from internet traffic.
Starting this week in the United States, Google will roll out a new feature introduced at its yearly developers conference. This update will allow hundreds of millions of users to occasionally view AI-generated conversational summaries at the top of the search results page.
Google's AI summaries are designed to appear only when the system identifies them as the fastest and most efficient method to address a user's query. This tends to occur with intricate topics or during brainstorming and planning sessions. For straightforward searches, such as looking for a store suggestion or checking the weather, users will probably continue to see Google's usual links to websites and advertisements.
The heightened focus on AI will introduce fresh challenges to an online ecosystem that relies significantly on digital advertising for its revenue.
A significant drop in web traffic could result in a loss of billions in advertising revenue, a severe impact caused by an AI system that gathers data from numerous websites that are at risk of losing earnings.
"The connection between Google and content creators has been mutually beneficial for a long time. However, with the advent of AI, major tech corporations have appropriated this creative material to develop their AI systems," McCollum explained. "Currently, this technology is being utilized for their own profit, which essentially results in shifting wealth from small, independent enterprises to large tech companies."
However, according to Liz Reid, who manages Google's search operations, the introduction of AI-generated summaries led to an increase in the number of searches people conducted during the testing phase. This was because users were now able to ask more complex questions that were previously too difficult. Reid shared this information in an interview with The Associated Press but chose not to disclose specific data regarding the volume of link clicks during the AI summary tests.
Over the past year and a half, the growing utilization of AI technology for summarizing content in chatbots like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT has sparked legal concerns. These concerns center around whether the companies developing these services are unlawfully using copyrighted material to improve their products. This issue is a key point in a significant lawsuit that The New York Times initiated against OpenAI and its major supporter, Microsoft, at the end of last year.