A big part of the economy of the internet is built on clicks. Google’s new AI Overviews feature may be changing that.
Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images
A big part of the economy of the internet is built on clicks. Google’s new AI Overviews feature may be changing that.
Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images
Google’s AI Overviews feature can deliver an answer to your question before you click a single link. But it spells bad news for the publishers that write the articles that power these AI summaries: their business models depend on site visits to sell ads. And some smaller publishers have already gone out of business as the use of AI summaries grows.
“The extinction-level event is already here,” said Helen Havlak, publisher of tech news site The Verge.
NPR’s John Ruwitch reports on how companies are adapting to the artificial intelligence shake-up in Google search. And Google is a financial supporter of NPR, but we cover them like any other company.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode featured reporting from NPR’s Bobby Allyn. It was produced by Connor Donevan and Henry Larson with audio engineering by Patrick Murray. It was edited by Ashley Brown, Brett Neely, Kara Platoni and Nadia Lancy. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
Source link
