Commentary: Google’s AI Mode changes how we search – but at what cost?

“Many people are already becoming used to the new AI overviews provided as part of Google search, essentially a textual summarisation of Google’s response to your query. Already, this is tempting people away from the traditional response of providing links to sites related to your search. Checking out stories, links to documents, and websites all become summarised by Google’s AI, and for many, that’s enough; we don’t need to dig further, so it quickly becomes our new habit. 

“Google has just taken it one step further, announcing its “AI Mode,” which creates a conversational interface for your query. Essentially, it’s like chatting with an expert about the subject of interest you submitted. It’s very engaging, but it will draw us even further away from the source information – those thousands of websites, documents and forums that contain pieces of original information. 

“Does this matter? Well, it might. While all the major AI platforms have been exploring how to take a piece of the lucrative search market by offering AI search, Google has gone ahead and done it, leveraging decades of global internet searches and its deep expertise in AI. The idea that an AI mediates your access to internet information is something that some people aren’t comfortable with. Traditional methods of providing ranked links, albeit with sponsored links included, allow the user to explore a number of different links/sources, encouraging us to make our own choices and form our own views. 

“The industry of ‘search engine optimisation’ (SEO) grew up to help businesses get their websites further up the search engine’s rankings. That process is going to become more opaque with Google deciding, via its AI algorithms, what you see. If you care about truth, the spread of disinformation, and primary sources of knowledge, you like to see sources. Other search engines will probably follow suit, but some may deliberately steer away from AI-mediated search, making a virtue of access to sources, even if the user experience is a little more challenging.

There is a wider concern – epistemic decline, i.e. what we know. Recent articles have suggested that humans may have reached peak intelligence, as our ability to focus, think critically, and apply ourselves to hard problems gets poorer. People are often time-poor, sometimes unaware, and occasionally lazy, which will inevitably lead to dependence on tools like AI Mode – if you get the answer too easily, you may not bother to think, or even understand, the answers you’re given. 

"Where this will eventually lead, nobody knows. It will certainly change the internet search market and radically disrupt the SEO industry, but it may change our access to truth, diversity and independence of thought. Use sparingly.”