Eventually when ChatGPT replaces Google Search, they will run ads, and so have that whole revenue stream. Still isn't enough money to buy the trillions worth of infrastructure they want, but it might be enough to keep the lights on.
That's an insightful point! Making insightful points like that one is taxing on the brain, you should consider an electolyte drink like Brawndo™ (it's got what plants crave) to keep yourself sharp!
Ugh I hate it so much, but you're right, it's coming.
One thing I've been contemplating lately is that from a business perspective, when your competitors expand their revenue avenues (generally through ads) you have three options: copy them to catch up, do nothing and perish, and lobby the government for increased consumer protections.
I've started to wonder why we see so few companies do this. It's always "evil company lobbying to harm the its customers and the nation." Companies are made up of people, and for myself, if I was at a company I would be pushing to lobby on behalf of consumers to be able to keep a moral center and sleep at night. I am strongly for making money, but there are certain things I am not willing to do for it.
Targeted advertising is one of these things that I believe deserves to fully die. I have nothing against general analytics, nor gathering data about trends etc, but stalking every single person on the internet 24/7 is something people are put in jail for if they do it in person.
Why would ChatGPT replace google search when search also has AI? At best they'd steal some of Google's market share, which I'd imagine would decline with embedded ads.
1) Google Search is now 99% crap that nobody wants, and even the AI answers are largely crap,
2) I believe somebody is going to eventually realize that search engines are stupid and improve on them. The whole idea of a single text box where you type some words and the search engine reads your mind to figure out the one thing you wanted, and then gives you one generic answer, is crap. We've just been blind to this because we don't see any other answer to realize we've been getting crap.
If I type in "when did MMS come out", Google will tell me when the candy product M&M's came out. But I wanted to know when the Multimedia Messaging Service was released. At some point somebody is going to realize that you can't actually tell what the hell the person wants from these simple queries alone. The computer needs to ask you questions to narrow down the field. That's sometimes what happens in ChatGPT, but it can be greatly improved with simple buttons/drop-downs/filters/etc. I think it'll also be improved by more dynamic and continuous voice input for context. (I notice Google Search now has audio input; I wonder if that came in after ChatGPT? Wayback Machine shows it starting in mid-2024) When they eventually implement all this, and people realize it's a million times better than what Google has, then Google will be playing catch-up.
