I was extremely AI hesitant, but recently I was just like fuck it, I’ll use these tools.
I went on Google AI mode multiple times and I noticed:
- As long as you aren’t generating images, you can basically do free tokens forever on it.
- It has no ads.
- It’s better at finding relevant information than search is.
I found a set of peripherals with it that actually matched my preferences and were not listed on the slop ratings sites. Then I bought it without a hope of Google seeing a red cent from the transaction.
All of this is to say that…they torched their actual business with revenue to give away a largely ad-free thing that’s a money furnace and has such negative public sentiment that it probably gets zero traffic except people that are hooking it up to opencode to get free tokens.
It seriously doesn’t even require you to login. Everything about it is so fucking stupid from a business angle.
Homer: “It has no ads… So far”
We all know by now that this is only a temporary state so enjoy it while it lasts.
My worry with AI search as I’ve seen it work, is that since it gives you a single or narrow answer instead of a range of options to choose from per the normal search, you could get funneled to exactly the content the platform wants you to see, further removing control from the user and my irrational(?) fear is that the ads are effectively hidden because the content is the ad
Yep agreed with all of that but I think it costs too much per user to really have an ad based business model.
It’s probably both long term. Ads plus limits. “Buy Google AI Plus to talk to Gemini more.”
Only problem is nobody will pay for it, when people don’t even want to use it for free.
AI is too competitive for anyone to make money at it. Last year OpenAI made a browswer to get ChatGPT traction, and Google “had to” do AI mode. “Making an extra $B is not cool, you know what is cool?
$1Teyeball/query share”. There’s too much “hype metrics” focus to juice stock/IPO values, and AI bubble pop needs to shift from circular financing to outright cannibalizing each other.Deepseek is an incredible lab, and Xiaomi espcially and several others from China, surprising. US models are good too, but the overspending has no competitive chance vs open models, or China’s hardware advantages and progression.
Eh, I am afraid everything will just go to YouTube and Google platforms.
I bet Google will buy Discord too. Hell, maybe Reddit once it tanks?
…I am not smiling at any of this. The destruction of the internet will not be a relief, as Google ultimately owns it already.
Google spent decades telling publishers to create quality content, then built a machine to read it aloud without sending anyone to the source. Now it’s shocked that the machine makes less money. Congratulations: they’ve invented a search engine that eats both its suppliers and its own business model.
Lol AI eating and leaving no crumbs. Slurping on anything it can vaccuum in.
Google is pivoting to telling publishers that its websites are not high quality enough, and that they need to subscribe to their AI services in order for generate user-tailored websites for customer retention.
Google Just Patented The End Of Your Website - https://www.forbes.com/sites/joetoscano1/2026/03/06/google-just-patented-the-end-of-your-website/
Oroboros
You know, for a moment I thought i was going to get sick of all the “AI blew up in this company’s face” headlines, but I dont think i will.
get ready for ads in ai answers; the cycle of enshittification must go on to satisfy the shareholders
Will magically undo itself somehow in a week but still fun to look at for now.
Oh no, if only someone would have know this would happen in advance, like, anyone at all, like literally any dumdum you’d ask, for example. Oh no…
Turns out reducing peoples expose to their core advertisement business while burning millions of tokens to produce a summary, not the best business decision they have ever made. But what do you expect of MBA’s that praise Jack Welch like a God.
Good?
Actions, meet consequences.
Until their AI thing returns sponsored answers
Doesn’t the regular answers do that already?
I use mostly AI to find stuff on the internet now. I just don’t use Google’s AI because it’s even worse than ChatGPT.
I mean sure. It’s still early days for AI models. They spent years boiling the frog that is the search user. They can take a hit for a while before Gemini starts taking money to talk or more importantly not talk about something.
