In recent times there has been a significant rise of AI technology. With its rising popularity, tech companies are facing more and more difficulty trying to stay in the lead. Artificial Intelligence continues to be developed further and incorporated into other technologies. After the creation of Chatgpt created by OpenAI back in 2022, Google has been fighting to keep its reign as the leading search engine. Pushing Google to create an AI chatbot of their own. For twenty or so years Google has been the most commonly used search engine but now following the development of AI, there have been predictions that will no longer be the case. Leading to the development of the new Google AI tool. A new mode of Google search that provides an option of a chatbot. Google’s goal is to gain back their lead in the tech industry after the rise of AI chatbot technology. It is meant to be a new take on google search but will it be as successful as they hope? The Google company themselves are still skeptical of AI and if they should contribute significant amounts of resources to this development. Much of the revenue made by Google can be attributed to their google search. However this is because people rely on its ability to generate correct information, and as AI is still experimental and new, there have been cases where past Google AI tools such as AI overview have had generative output that was incorrect. Given that this will be a major decision for the Google company, they have to be sure that there will be a future in AI.
It was only until recently that Google noticed a sudden drop in the usage of their search engine. The cause? People are choosing to use AI over using Google. This is the first time Google has ever seen a fall off such as this one. The company had held off for some time given that AI is still relatively new and difficult to regulate. However Google in fear of losing to its long time competitors decided to put their worries aside and contribute their own AI developments. Creating the newly launched AI mode, in hopes of it being a new future in Google AI incorporation. As well as hopes that it will be more successful than previous AI tools launched by Google. This new AI creation is meant to be a step toward further AI incorporation by Google.
On another note Google has had several antitrust cases in the past. Given that the business does hold a significant amount of power in the technology industry, there is much speculation surrounding the company debating whether the business holds too much power in the industry. Google not only has its search engine but it also controls advertisements and the google app store. Leading to many monopoly allegations and criticisms. After the newest AI breakthrough from Google, the US government decided it was only fair if other AI systems were allowed to use data on Google. Many web publishers are also unhappy with Google’s newest AI tool as it provides snippets of information without having to view the actual websites themselves which saves time for users but causes web publishers to lose people coming across their sites. As AI developments continue to expand, issues and criticisms like these will only continue not even just for Google but for other tech businesses as well. So has AI development gone too far? The question of how all of these AI developments will be regulated or if they will be regulated remains unanswered.
12 comments:
At first glance, I thought it was very strategic of Google to adapt to these current times. They noticed a shift in what people wanted and were able to adapt and provide. For example, I find myself using ChatGPT less because I find it easier to access the Google AI tool. That being said, you bring up strong points that have altered my view on the new Google AI addition. Firstly, I have seen instances where the Google AI tool has produced incorrect information. This does put them at risk for hurting their reputation as being a reliable search engine. Additionally, I also understand the publishers' frustration. Even if the AI tool is crafting answers using various websites, credit isn’t being given, or even if it is, it goes severely unnoticed. I definitely have noticed that now with the AI tool I am less likely to click on websites because my answer has already been given to me. Overall, I still believe that Google was smart to add AI but do agree that there's room for improvement.
I feel this is all an unnecessary expansion of "shortcuts" that limit people to seeing only one side of the story or only one answer to a question. Google has been used as a source of expanding knowledge through new innovations, but with this new AI summary feature being the first thing you see, everyone's thoughts will similar and everyone would agree on things that should be disagreed upon. In a country that protects freedom of thought and speech, the rise of AI, as opposed to sifting through various articles, will overall limit our diversity in thought and opinion.
This article raises the concern for me about corporate greed and doing things for the profit, not for the greater good. This Google AI thing will definitely increase efficiency and ease for users, but it will also make people more subject to misinformation as AI is still an imperfect system that requires just as much if not more critical thinking than a typical source. And I see how the monopoly concern addressed here is valid because this system gets rid of traffic to smaller websites and diminishes the efforts of those sources. We definitely see the top companies controlling a large portion of the tech industry, but this lack of competition and the need to be in control is an issue that I think goes back to the selfish intent of these companies.
It’s understandable that Google wants to protect its dominance in search, but rushing into AI without really solving issues like misinformation and fair content use could be dangerous and damage trust. Their new AI tools could be helpful, but also worry me about monopolistic behavior and the impact on web publishers. AI can be helpful in research if it is used responsibly, and if regulations about accuracy and transparency are imposed.
The section about website publishers losing traffic because AI was the most interesting to me. Small creators usually rely on their website page visits and engagement from users online, and since that can easily be taken away by AI that can summarize content, it harms their business significantly. Since Google already maintains control over the large part of their searching, ads, and their apps, adding AI to the ecosystem takes the company's power further, concentrating it. If AI continues to develop without proper oversight or regulation, there is a large risk of creating sustaining damage to people who rely on them.
I think that Google AI will have a lot of developing to do before it puts the engine on the map any further. Nowadays, Google AI always shows up when I search something to give me an incomplete answer to whatever my topic was — yet still manages to discourage me from looking more into a subject. Because of AI overviews, I find myself going to not only other AI websites less, but also using the actual website function of Google less. There have been many times when I have read an AI overview and thought I know the baseline of a topic, not bothering to look further into depth with supplemental websites. In this way I think that Google AI is discouraging the use of normal google — so not only functioning as a way of Google staying with the times, but it is replacing the purpose of the app itself (which I find a little sad). I’m not sure I like how Google is succumbing to the culture of handing information to internet users on a silver platter, but at least until Google AI can deliver completely true, detailed, information, I think there should be a way to disable the overviews so the choice of having them can be more personalized to the individual user.
I think this really shows how much AI is changing the tech world, even challenging giants like Google. It's unexpected that Google, which has dominated the market for so long, is now under pressure to catch up with developments in AI. I recognize their desire to remain competitive, but I think there are major possible drawbacks, such as false information from AI technologies and damage to smaller websites. With this new AI technology, Google's already major influence could go much further. I AI has potential, but its responsible use requires a balance with regulation.
Our guest speaker warned us about the risks of generative AI as we become more and more reliant on having computers doing the thinking for us. People having access to highly advanced models right at their fingertips, taking pictures for ChatGPT to analyze and now even looking things up and immediately finding the quick summarization, we're slowly losing our ability to think critically if we don't actively do the searching ourselves. Even if you know about AI's impact and how it can often generate wrong or irrelevant information (I know I have encountered that a lot with Google AI), it is much more difficult to make a conscious effort to fact check and corroborate the info AI tools are giving us, but it's a very important step. Using the AI to get a small overview is only the first part of the info-seeking process; it can be good to help guide you, but in my opinion it really should only be a (tentative) guide for you to look for real sources.
It’s actually a really good and interesting point that google AI can just take information from websites and feed it to users without them having to visit the website taking away revenue for the people making that website. Given the fact that many websites have to put so many ads on their page that it can make them incredibly laggy and unusable to make a profit nowadays, this is only going to make it less profitable for websites to give people information
You make an important point about how Google’s new AI mode represents a pivotal shift in both technology and business strategy. As generative AI continues to reshape how people access information, Google is under pressure to evolve its search engine while maintaining user trust. Their decision to integrate AI more deeply into search reflects an urgent response to rising competition, especially from tools like ChatGPT, but it also raises questions about accuracy, content ownership, and the broader impacts on the internet. Your observation about over reliance on AI and the risks of “hallucinations” is especially relevant. If users come to depend too heavily on AI-generated answers, the consequences for reliable information access, web traffic, and public understanding could be significant. I agree that while this is a bold business strategy from Google as it’s also a turning point for how information is accessed, trusted, and monetized.
Google AI: I think that it is honestly pretty alarming how much power AI has had over multiple industries as it continues to rapidly advance and develop its abilities in multiple fields, specifically tech industries. Google’s decision to include an AI mode option and AI Overview is just one of many examples of companies turning to AI as a way to stay in business when in competition with such a powerful asset, even if it’s not what they are typically comfortable using, nor the most accurate way of providing their service. After the presentation we heard in class regarding the dangers AI can pose in the future, I think it’s extremely important that if larger industries and businesses are turning to AI to increase their popularity and productivity, they should proceed with caution. It’s already concerning seeing businesses as large as Google caving into supporting an addition to their company that they themselves have concerns and distaste towards just because of the immense amount of popularity it will have on their brand and keeping them in the lead. Regulation is definitely necessary to ensure that these gradual additions of AI into people’s everyday lives don’t take over the companies themselves, eventually leading to AI being present in every search engine available online. Overall, I personally see these new additions as red flags for what the future holds for AI’s power, and a sign that we need to take action as early as possible to prevent a spiral.
I'm not sure it's accurate to say Google is still skeptical of AI, as we can see through their recent activities, it seems to be the SOLE thing they are interested in. AI is now engrained into the top of every google search, Gemini is seeing constant updates and Google is pushing it to replace Google assistant in their phones, and in those phones, the Pixel line, AI is taking a complete forefront in their camera app - magic eraser, AI image editing and generation, AI audio editing and cleaning, AI image search in the Google Photos app. Google has even developed their in-house chip for the Pixel 9, the Tensor G4 to be a processor specifically focused on AI performance. So it is accurate to say Google is making an addition to the AI overtake, and I believe your point is actually understated with the level of commitment they have to it. You can even see this commitment in the recent G logo redesign, with the smooth gradients between the colors that is reminiscent of the graphic design in gemini and the rainbow gradients present all around their AI photo editing on the Pixel phones.
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