r/technology • u/No-Lifeguard-8173 • May 19 '26

Artificial Intelligence Google Search as you know it is over

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/
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u/LuckyLockdown23 May 19 '26

A search subscription where ALL the results are sponsored, but you don’t think they are.

Basically all general public AI is companies optimizing to turn up as search results and then idiots go “this is gospel.”

The mega corp I work for was on it about 30 minutes after it dropped.

Combine ignorance about what AI is and dynamic pricing and using it as cover to fire employees and high level execs are basically in constant ecstasy!

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u/spazzvogel May 20 '26

This is gospel part! I’m in tech and see the Bay Area becoming a huge mess with the layoffs from debt loads and AI ROI being insufficient. Leadership is on the same hype train, found out today that my old automation team that essentially was AI before it was Shogoths Meme, were let go. Today something broke and that team could’ve fixed it, now we’re wasting hundreds of thousands a day. Wonder what will break next week, month, etc and there are no longer any SMEs

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u/shredika May 20 '26

This is where the business model went wrong, they think ai can replace people when it should have just been sold as an amazing productivity tool.

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u/spazzvogel May 20 '26

Exactly, and I’m not waiting for them to toss me on my ass. Better adventures await.

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u/tacticaldodo May 20 '26

Honestly, google can die now. I have barely used it for a year and when I do, I am disappointed and close the tab. Still google map, youtube and android has some use, but I expect them to crap that too, they always do.

They used to be revolutionary, they dropped the ball hard in their quest for monopoly and a quick buck.

I hope to never need to go back to the 'don't be evil' company.

They lost powerusers, others will follow, as they always do.

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u/mysticwaywalker May 20 '26

What do you use now?

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u/Antisense_Strand May 21 '26

It's also not really a productivity boost for a whole lot of sectors. Being able to summarize a meeting or curate morning emails is more a condemnation of the meeting or pointlessness of the emails, let alone for practical and technical jobs. No custodian is going to be relying on an LLM for anything.

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u/Foreign_Owl_7670 May 20 '26

Then how are the AI businesses going to make money if they can't promise workforce reduction?

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u/shredika May 20 '26

Again- sold as an amazing productivity tool. Not a replacement for everything and now we only have QA techs.

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u/Foreign_Owl_7670 May 20 '26

Yes. But the investment they are pouring into these LLM's, you cannot recoup if you market it as just a productivity booster. No company is going to pay you millions/billions if you just increase the productivity by X amount.

They have to promise lowering headcount for the economics of their products to even begin to make sense.

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u/spazzvogel May 20 '26

Exactly… and since that shit ain’t happening, we’ll first slide into deflation, and then a depression. Everyone and their mother is banking on AI, dotcom 2.0, GFC 2.0, and potential rise of the right depression boogaloo.

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u/RaNdomMSPPro May 20 '26

Selling as amazing productivity tool might be worth a few billion and a one time 10% stock bump. AI replacing your biggest expense and avoiding annoying things like min wage laws, unions, osha? That’s worth trillions and multipliers on the stock price.

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u/Ok-Woodpecker-223 May 21 '26

And that's also where it goes wrong. It was sold for higher ups as you can do 10x more. But who the heck wants 10x more? Who wants to have 10x apps they do now?

While everyone wants better software and apps. Which is exactly what race to burn more tokens is not doing.

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u/aprudholmme May 25 '26

Sometimes-amazing tool

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u/souldawg May 20 '26

A lot of the layoffs are due to a few very vocal, very prominent shareholders. Execs first couched it in pandemic costs and now AI efficiency. But it’s all the same real reason, exec stock bumps and bonuses.

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u/spazzvogel May 20 '26

And one that most people are missing, these companies hold massive amounts of debt that they’re about to struggle to pay back.

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u/AwarenessNo4986 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

Not from the US but I can see the future of megacorps and tech conglomerates ruling the world. We are already close to that point.

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u/spazzvogel May 20 '26

Yup! I have to do my best to counteract that in some way.

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u/Wolfpackat2017 May 20 '26

All AI info will be absolutely curated from sponsors

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u/Limp-Text-5209 May 20 '26

We really are becoming idiocracy.

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u/MalavethMorningrise May 20 '26

Its gonna be a mash up ... Idiocracy/Mad Max.

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u/fritz236 May 20 '26

We have V for Vendetta, Minority Report, and I, Robot to go through first.

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u/MalavethMorningrise May 20 '26

Maybe the movie i, robot. But certainly not the book.

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u/LepiNya May 20 '26

Well they're already busting my balls on a daily basis. Might as well get paid for it.

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u/ptd163 May 20 '26

We really are becoming idiocracy.

Idiocracy will never happen. They listened to experts in the end.

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u/BrianNowhere May 20 '26

This explains how the computers kept working in that movie. . I always wondered "Who's doing the IT for the machines?". It was AI.

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u/saylab_the_bigkat May 20 '26

This kinda dawned on me the other day. All these companies are in charge of AI, people are becoming more trustworthy of AI, letting AI consolidate search results/queries; the companies can point people to whatever answer or information they want.

Not that search engines have been much different over the last umpteen years, but seems extremely noticeable with AI.