Technologies
Google’s AI Search Could Mean Radical Changes for Your Internet Experience
At Google I/O, the company unveiled an experimental version of Search that integrates AI-generated responses. Will it break the balance of the internet?

The future of Google Search is a big green box.
That’s exactly what Google showed off this month at Google I/O, the company’s yearly developer conference. The theme for 2023 was AI, a term mentioned more than 140 times during the two-hour keynote presentation. Google unveiled AI products that will actually be released to the public, an about-face for the apprehensive internet giant in response to growing competition.
Late last year, OpenAI launched ChatGPT to near-universal adulation. Suddenly, everybody had access to a generative AI engine that could seemingly answer any question with a novel response. It’s powered by a large language model, or LLM, that essentially lets it act as «autocomplete on steroids,» using massive amounts of text data to figure out what the next best word should be.
The power and ease of ChatGPT helped it become the fastest growing consumer web platform ever. It prompted Microsoft to up its investment into OpenAI and integrate ChatGPT’s tech directly into Bing search earlier this year, a move that helped the company see a 16% increase in traffic. The day before Microsoft unveiled Bing AI, Google announced its own generative AI engine, Bard, although it flubbed the launch and lost $100 billion in stock market value in the process. The stock has since rebounded to its highest level so far this year.
In many ways, Google I/O was a referendum on the company’s wonky entrance into consumer AI and a clear message to skeptics (and investors) that it’s willing to take radical steps to stay at the forefront of internet search, even if that means upending its core product. Google Search has long been the engine for how we all look for product information, find the latest news and otherwise interact with the internet, and for how many businesses make money.
The new Search Generative Experience, or SGE, is an experimental version of Search that deprioritizes the 10 blue links that have defined Google for the past quarter century. Instead, any query, regardless of how specific, gets answered in a mushrooming green box that expands as it fills the screen with a person’s answer.
«Now search does the heavy lifting for you,» said Cathy Edwards, vice president of engineering at Google, during I/O. She said that in the Search we know today, complex queries have to be broken down into smaller questions where you, the user, have to sift through the information yourself and formulate the answer in your head. SGE can do all of that automatically, even allowing you to ask follow-up questions.
Google Search Generative Experience is an experimental version of Search that integrates AI-generated results, similar to Bing and ChatGPT.
At the same time, it also means not having to visit multiple sites – clicks that webpages rely on, potentially upending the internet’s ad-driven business model.
Google is by far the largest player in online search, with 93% market share, according to Statcounter. Online search engines are also the greatest drivers of traffic for websites, with 68% of online experiences beginning at a search engine, according to a 2019 report by Brightedge Research. Google’s dominance in search at one point helped it see a valuation of $2 trillion.
With SGE, Google is potentially thrusting internet users and businesses into a new future, one that’ll require a rethinking of how quality information can continue to percolate while also incentivizing people into creating valuable content to feed its AI machine.
Because sign-ups just started for SGE, there isn’t any data yet to share regarding user experience. Microsoft, however, has been gathering feedback for Bing AI over the last three months and could provide a lens on how consumers may react with AI-driven Google searches.
«Feedback on the answers generated by the new Bing has been mostly positive, with 71% of those in preview giving the AI-powered answers a thumbs-up, said a Microsoft spokesperson. «We’re seeing a healthy engagement on the chat feature, with multiple questions asked during a session to discover new information.»
It’s unclear how AI-generated news stories will filter into Google’s or Bing’s AI results. Already, publications, including CNET, are experimenting with AI written articles. Unfortunately, AI itself isn’t always accurate and can have «hallucinations,» where it confidently says something is correct when it isn’t.
If the hallucination problem is eventually solved, generative AI in search could be faster and ultimately better for consumers. But it’s still unknown as to how it could affect the digital publishing industry, especially if people forgo clicking links en masse.
«As we experiment with new LLM-powered capabilities in Search, we’ll continue to prioritize approaches that send valuable traffic to a wide range of creators and support a healthy, open web,» a Google spokesperson said. Though it’s true that Google does link to sources prominently in SGE, it’s uncertain if SGE will translate to increased or higher quality traffic for sites.
Microsoft didn’t answer any questions regarding traffic to sources when using AI search. Google said it doesn’t have plans to share about publisher compensation but would «continue to work with the broader ecosystem.»
«I think [generative AI] is going to bring down the amount of traffic going out because that’s the purpose of it,» said Monica Ho, chief marketing officer at SOCi, a digital marketing company. However, she posits that traffic coming in for sites might be higher quality, as people are looking for specific information versus bouncing between sites.
If Google becomes undependable for traffic, there might not be viable alternatives. Social media platforms such as Facebook have proved to be unreliable partners for publications, down-ranking news on a whim, according to Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and professor of political communication at the University of Oxford. He added that platforms like Instagram or TikTok «drive comparatively few referrals, and do not really feature links the way search does and social did.»
At the moment, search engines «crawl» websites daily to glean new information and index it into results. Websites allow engines to crawl for free because of the traffic conversion. But if AI-search leads to fewer clicks, the search economy may need an entirely new rethinking.
«I expect that original content will be placed behind paywalls and require LLM models to pay in order to read it.,» said Don White, CEO of Satisfi Labs, a conversational AI company. In a «Spotify-style compensation model,» White sees a future where sites are paid-per-view.
Ultimately, Google will likely need to find a way for revenue to reach creators and publications so that there’s still an incentive to create quality content.
«Quality data has to feed the engine, and Google’s not creating all of their own unique, authentic original content,» said Ho. «It has to come from creators. They know that they’re going to have to feed that engine somehow and make it worthwhile for content to keep coming.»
Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to create some personal finance explainers that are edited and fact-checked by our editors. For more, see this post.
Technologies
Tariffs Explained: Latest on Trump’s Shifting Import Tax Plan, and What It Means
Technologies
Apple, I’m (Sky) Blue About Your iPhone 17 Air Color
Commentary: The rumored new hue of the iPhone 17 Air is more sky blah than sky blue.

I can’t help but feel blue about the latest rumor that Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 17 Air will take flight in a subtle, light-hued color called sky blue.
Sky blue isn’t a new color for Apple. It’s the featured shade of the current M4 MacBook Air, a shimmer of cerulean so subtle as to almost be missed. It’s silver left too close to an aquarium; silver that secretly likes to think it’s blue but doesn’t want everyone else to notice.
Do Apple employees get to go outside and see a real blue sky? It’s actually vivid, you can check for yourself. Perhaps the muted sky blue color reflects a Bay Area late winter/early spring frequent layer of clouds like we typically see here in Seattle.
«Who cares?» you might find yourself saying. «Everyone gets a case anyway.» I hear you and everyone else who’s told me that. But design-focused Apple is as obsessive about colors as they are about making their devices thinner. And I wonder if their heads are in the clouds about which hues adorn their pro products.
Making the case for a caseless color iPhone
I’m more invested in this conversation than most — I’m one of those freaks who doesn’t wrap my phone in a case. I find cases bulky and superfluous, and I like to be able to see Apple’s design work. Also, true story, I’ve broken my iPhone screen only twice: First when it was in a «bumper» that Apple sent free in response to the iPhone 4 you’re-holding-it-wrong Antennagate fiasco, and second when trying to take long exposure starry night photos using what I didn’t realize was a broken tripod mount. My one-week-old iPhone 13 Pro slipped sideways and landed screen-first on a pointy rock. A case wouldn’t have saved it.
My current model is an iPhone 16 Pro in black titanium — which I know seems like avoiding color entirely — but previously I’ve gone for colors like blue titanium and deep purple. I wanted to like deep purple the most but it came across as, in the words of Patrick Holland in his iPhone 14 Pro review, «a drab shade of gray or like Grimace purple,» depending on the light.
Pros can be bold, too
Maybe the issue is too many soft blues. Since the iPhone Pro age began with the iPhone 11 Pro, we’ve seen variations like blue titanium (iPhone 15 Pro), sierra blue (iPhone 13 Pro) and pacific blue (iPhone 12 Pro).
Pacific blue is the boldest of the bunch, if by bold you mean dark enough to discern from silver, but it’s also close enough to that year’s graphite color that seeing blue depends on the surrounding lighting. By comparison, the blue (just «blue») color of the iPhone 12 was unmistakably bright blue.
In fact, the non-Pro lines have embraced vibrant colors. It’s as if Apple is equating «pro» with «sophisticated,» as in «A real pro would never brandish something this garish.» I see this in the camera world all the time: If it’s not all-black, it’s not a «serious» camera.
And yet I know lots of pros who are not sophisticated — proudly so. People choose colors to express themselves, so forcing that idea of professionalism through color feels needlessly restrictive. A bright pink iPhone 16 might make you smile every time you pick it up but then frown because it doesn’t have a telephoto camera.
Color is also important because it can sway a purchase decision. «I would buy a sky blue iPhone yesterday,» my colleague Gael Cooper texted after the first rumor popped online. When each new generation of iPhones arrive, less technically different than the one before, a color you fall in love with can push you into trading in your perfectly-capable model for a new one.
And lest you think Apple should just stick with black and white for its professional phones: Do you mean black, jet black, space black, midnight black, black titanium, graphite or space gray? At least the lighter end of the spectrum has stuck to just white, white titanium and silver over the years.
Apple never got ahead by being beige
I’m sure Apple has reams of studies and customer feedback that support which colors make it to production each year. Like I said, Apple’s designers are obsessive (in a good way). And I must remind myself that a sky blue iPhone 17 Air is a rumored color on a rumored product so all the usual caveats apply.
But we’re talking about Apple here. The scrappy startup that spent more than any other company on business cards at the time because each one included the old six-color Apple logo. The company that not only shaped the first iMac like a tipped-over gumdrop, that not only made the case partially see-through but then made that cover brilliant Bondi blue.
Embrace the iPhone colors, Apple.
If that makes you nervous, don’t worry: Most people will put a case on it anyway.
Technologies
Astronomers Say There’s an Increased Possibility of Life on This Distant Planet
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are working to confirm potential evidence of life on a distant exoplanet dubbed K2-18b.

Astronomers are nearing a statistically significant finding that could confirm the potential signs of life detected on the distant exoplanet K2-18b are no accident.
The team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (which has only been in use since the end of 2021) to detect chemical traces of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), which they say can only be produced by life such as phytoplankton in the sea.
According to the university, «the results are the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.»
The findings were published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and point to the possibility of an ocean on this planet’s surface, which scientists have been hoping to discover for years. In the abstract for the paper, the team says, «The possibility of hycean worlds, with planet-wide oceans and H2-rich atmospheres, significantly expands and accelerates the search for habitable environments elsewhere.»
Not everyone agrees, however, that what the team found proves there’s life on the exoplanet.
Science writer and OpenMind Magazine founder Corey S. Powell posted about the findings on Bluesky, writing, «The potential discovery of alien life is so enticing that it drags even reputable outlets into running naive or outright misleading stories.» He added, «Here we go again with planet K2-18b.Um….there’s strong evidence of non-biological sources of the molecule DMS.»
K2-18b is 124 light-years away and much larger than Earth (more than eight times our mass), but smaller than Neptune. The search for signs of even basic life on a planet like this increases the chances that there are more planets like Earth that may be inhabitable, with temperatures and atmospheres that could sustain human-like lifeforms. The team behind the paper hopes that more study with the James Webb Space Telescope will help confirm their initial findings.
More research to do on finding life on K2-18b
The exoplanet K2-18b is not the only place where scientists are exploring the possibility of life, and this research is still an early step in the process, said Christopher Glein, a geochemist, planetary researcher and lead scientist at San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute. Excitement over the significance of the research, he said, should be tempered.
«We need to be careful here,» Glein said. «It appears that there is something in the data that can’t be explained, and DMS/DMDS can provide an explanation. But this detection is stretching the limits of JWST’s capabilities.»
Glein added, «Further work is needed to test whether these molecules are actually present. We also need complementary research assessing the abiotic background on K2-18b and similar planets. That is, the chemistry that can occur in the absence of life in this potentially exotic environment. We might be seeing evidence of some cool chemistry rather than life.»
The TRAPPIST-1 planets, he said, are being researched as potentially habitable, as is LHS 1140b, which he said «is another astrobiologically significant exoplanet, which might be a massive ocean world.»
As for K2-18b, Glein said many more tests need to be performed before there’s consensus on life existing on it.
«Finding evidence of life is like prosecuting a case in the courtroom,» Glein said. «Multiple independent lines of evidence are needed to convince the jury, in this case the worldwide scientific community.» He added, «If this finding holds up, then that’s Step 1.»
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