NTO - AI integrated in search technology

Google announced several new features at its annual developer conference in Mountain View, California, earlier this month, including new text-editing tools in Gmail and 3D-illustrated directions in Google Maps.

But there’s one change that hasn’t gotten much attention outside the tech world, one that many observers say the internet hasn’t seen since Google became the world’s largest search engine in the early 2000s: the company plans to change the way it presents search results on Google Search by using artificial intelligence (AI).

It may seem like a small change, but observers say it would be no exaggeration to say it would be a nuclear bomb in the online news industry, which has been struggling to compete and survive for some time.

Small change, big impact

At the conference, Google showed off how it plans to use generative AI in its search results—a feature that hasn’t yet rolled out to the general public. Google used a query that read: “Which national park is better for a family with kids under 3 and pets, Bryce Canyon or Arches?”

GPT-4 logo of OpenAI Company. Photo: OpenAI/VNA

Previously, Google Search wouldn’t have given a comprehensive answer to this query. But with the integration of AI synthesis, Google Search will now provide a conversational-style answer that takes into account specific factors the user has specified—in this case, the ages of children and pets.

How does Google’s AI do it? Essentially, each generative AI is trained by “learning” all the information available on the open internet, and then using that information to construct answers to user questions.

Google notes that after receiving query results, if users want to dig deeper, they can access links displayed right next to the AI-generated answers.

Why would this be bad for online publishing? Because Google is essentially creating answers to complex questions using all the content available on the internet. Google search users will no longer have to visit each page that actually contains information relevant to their question, but online news publishers need users to visit their news sites to convert those views into advertising dollars and subscriptions.

That's true for major publishers like the New York Times and Forbes, as well as independent authors and journalists writing on platforms like Substack and Twitter.

Time bomb

The most important question here is whether the links presented with AI answers ever actually receive user visits.

Google is trying to suggest that this will happen, as the tech giant tries to be transparent about where it gets its information. But experts say this is similar to suggesting that Wikipedia users visit the sources at the bottom of each page. People who are extremely interested in a particular topic might click on those links. But the vast majority of users will just read the content posted on Wikipedia without paying attention to the source of the information.

And that's how Google Search's AI-generated answers will start to "eat away" at the content currently provided by newspapers, magazines, and online news sites.

Some might even consider this a form of plagiarism. But whatever you call it, the result is less attention for the content creator’s sites. In turn, the attention of users shifts to Google, which is trying to give them reasons to never leave its ecosystem of products. Google can then sell ads based on views that might otherwise go to other news sites.

Views and visits are what make commercial websites profitable for content creators. But it will be difficult for many websites to survive such a profound change, given that Google Search has about 89% of the search engine market share in the US and about 94% of the market share worldwide.

When will this capability launch in Google Search? That’s unclear. Google says it’s rolling it out in a few weeks and will roll it out gradually. But with strong competition like ChatGPT, Google can’t afford to wait and watch other tech companies benefit. Many people have already replaced Google searches with ChatGPT—which is exactly what Google is worried about.

The future is clearly uncertain. But analysts generally fear that Google Search’s ability to do so could destroy the online advertising that many newspapers and magazines rely on. It could also force many to choose to set up paywalls on their own content, further limiting the audience they can reach.

Google is about to drop a bomb that will wipe out countless websites. The internet world doesn’t know when it will happen. When it does, factors like subscriptions and third-party referral traffic (like Facebook, Twitter, etc.) will be almost meaningless for online news publishers.

According to VNA/Tin Tuc Newspaper

Source link