- Google is adding a new artificial intelligence feature to search results
- ‘Expert advice’ summarizes advice from forums and social networks
- But it risks undermining the very sources on which it draws
In recent years, Google has been increasingly incorporating AI into its search results: today, type anything into the search engine and you’ll likely see an AI-generated response before any website. It now appears that the search giant plans to increasingly integrate AI into its offering by including “expert advice” from sources such as Reddit and social media.
According to a post on Google’s official blog, people often seek advice from other humans when using Google. In response to that, Google’s AI responses will now include “a preview of insights from online public debates, social media, and other first-hand sources.”
According to Google’s examples, these will take the form of a quote taken from the original website, with the name of the source listed below, all housed in an “Expert Tips” section.
For example, Google says that if you’re looking for tips on how to take better photos of the Northern Lights, the Expert Tips area could show you tips on setting the right exposure, adjusting your camera’s ISO speed, not using a smartphone, and more.
Google may not always use the Expert Tips label; other examples in the blog post include “Perspectives on Natural Weeding” and “Community Experiences.” Apparently they will depend on the topic you are looking for.
Analysis: Google’s insatiable appetite for AI
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At first glance, Google’s Expert Tips section could be a useful way to quickly get the key information you’re looking for instead of having to rummage through multiple websites looking for the answer.
But there is certainly a degree of irony here. After all, websites like Reddit are so popular because users want genuine help from other people, not AI-generated content; the human aspect is the point. However, Google seems to have seen that fact and unleashed its AI on these sources, absorbing and commodifying their knowledge and reducing the human element in the process.
And here is another risk. By repeating the best advice from various forums and social media sites, Google’s AI could take away clicks from websites that are already struggling to survive as a direct result of the rise of AI. If these sites go under, there will be no human responses that Google’s AI can summarize in the first place.
While I have no doubt that giants like Reddit will be fine with Google’s latest AI move, it’s the smaller sites that worry me most: sites whose key tips and tricks will be replicated by Google without the associated web traffic. And the Internet would be a much poorer place if they went under, leaving Google’s voracious AI and, more importantly, human readers without the vital resources they were looking for.
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