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.

CNET

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

Experts sound alarm after researcher puts AI extinction risk above 10%

Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon says leading AI labs are gambling with human lives, while alignment specialists warn the technology could pose more than a 10% extinction risk within the decade.

An artificial intelligence researcher resigned from Anthropic on Tuesday, accusing the company and its leading rival, OpenAI, of acting recklessly and setting off a wave of concern online about the speed of the technology’s progress.

Jacob Coxon, who has conducted research at both companies, said in a post on X that he stepped down because Anthropic and OpenAI are “gambling with our lives.” He said those developing AI “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

“Do not underestimate the power of this technology,” Coxon wrote. “These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.”

Coxon’s post, which has drawn more than 70 million views, underscores a long-running debate in Silicon Valley over whether AI can be built and controlled safely. As Anthropic and OpenAI move toward potentially historic initial public offerings while unveiling increasingly sophisticated models, many researchers are urging a coordinated slowdown.

OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki said in a blog post Sunday that no AI company has “solved alignment and monitoring to a sufficient degree to continue responsibly scaling at maximum speed for much longer.” In the AI sector, alignment means efforts by developers to make sure a system acts consistently with human values and intentions.

“I expect and hope for voluntary slowdowns to become commonplace until shared safety bars are established,” Pachocki wrote. “And I believe that international coordination on future AI development needs to become a top priority for governments around the world.”

Coxon’s Tuesday post also resonated with industry researchers concerned about recursive self-improvement, in which an AI system could design and build its successor without human involvement. Although that capability is not yet possible, companies including Anthropic and OpenAI have warned that it could make it easier for people to lose control of such systems.

“Neither company is acting responsibly,” Coxon wrote. “They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence.”

Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s alignment lead, supported Coxon’s assessment in a post on X late Tuesday.

“Jacob is correct here—we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade,” Hubinger wrote. “I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to.”

Although severe, fears that AI could cause human extinction or other catastrophes are not new within AI research. In 2023, prominent researchers and executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, signed a statement declaring that “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Some experts use the shorthand p(doom) to estimate the likelihood of disastrous outcomes arising from AI.

Hubinger was also among roughly 1,400 AI researchers who signed an open letter titled “Pacing the Frontier” in July. The letter called on the U.S. government to create the tools needed to support an effort to “deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development.”

Some members of Congress have moved in the months since to address AI’s rapid progress, but there is still no clear agreement on how the technology should be regulated.

In July, Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., introduced the FRONTIER Act, legislation intended to create a framework for overseeing the deployment of advanced AI models. Earlier this month, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which would temporarily halt advanced AI development until the federal government puts safety rules in place. Both measures have received mixed responses.

“Safety researchers are resigning, powerful AI models are breaking out of their labs, and companies are racing ahead anyway,” Trahan wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “It’s past time for Congress to get off the sidelines and do its job.”

Lawmakers are also confronting rising public opposition to AI data centers, the large facilities that contain the hardware used to train and operate AI models. The backlash has intensified to the point that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, or NRSC, said last month that data centers have become a “sleeper issue” for the entire midterm election cycle, as Verum previously reported.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this month that AI companies have done a “horrendous job of explaining themselves to the American people.”

“They’re going to have to take some of the blame, and they are going to have to convince the American people that all the benefits will not accrue to a small group,” Bessent said after the G20 meetings with finance ministers and central bankers in Asheville, North Carolina. “That’s what they hear from me.”

Technologies

Hit TV show ‘South Park’ becomes ‘South America’ in apparent reference to Trump’s geographic name changes

The animated series ‘South Park’ is rebranding to ‘South America’ in a satirical jab at President Trump’s recent geographic renaming efforts, including changes to Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico.

Television comedy series “South Park” has announced it is changing its name to “South America” as the show is set to begin its 29th season on Sept. 16. The show’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said, “Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA. We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount — a Skydance Capitulation.” Parker and Stone’s statement comes after U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America amid a trade spat with Canada. Canadian officials said they will not recognize the new name. Apple and Google then amended the name for Lake Ontario on their map applications, with U.S. users seeing “Lake America,” while Canadian users saw “Lake Ontario.” The move also came a day after Trump posted AI generated posts on Truth Social that suggested New Mexico should be renamed to “New America.” Last year, the president used an executive order to change the name for the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, drawing international opposition. “South Park” won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the “Sermon on the Mount” episode which premiered last year and parodies Trump’s presidency. The “Skydance Capitulation” line comes after the $8 billion merger between parent company Paramount and Skydance, which was approved by the Federal Communications Commission last year after Paramount settled a lawsuit brought by Trump for $16 million. Trump had alleged an interview that aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” in 2024 with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, was deceptively edited. Paramount subsidiary CBS News in July 2025 said it was canceling comedian Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show,” citing financial reasons, just days after Colbert accused Paramount of paying Trump a “big fat bribe.” The final episode of the show aired in May. Paramount and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Technologies

Trump says he has no regrets about starting the Iran war as U.S. dials up economic pressure

Speaking to Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham, Trump said that he would have attacked Iran despite the impact on the midterm elections.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he has no regrets about starting the Iran war and added that “If I had it to do again, I would do exactly what I did.”

Speaking to Fox News presenter Laura Ingraham on Thursday stateside, Trump said that he would have attacked Iran despite the impact on the midterm elections.

“If we hadn’t done Iran, you would be cruising to midterms victory right now,” Ingraham told Trump, to which Trump replied “supposing we were cruising, and all of a sudden Iran has a nuclear weapon. They would use it.”

He added that if Iran had a nuclear weapon, the Islamic Republic would “wipe out” Israel and the Middle East, and start hitting U.S. cities.

His comments come as markets brace for a longer Iran war, after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that top White House advisors had discussed with Trump the possibility that the Iran war could drag on beyond his current term.

Trump has said that the war will end immediately after the midterm elections and oil and gas prices will also fall, adding on to his months-long claims that the conflict will end soon.

In separate comments to NewsNation on Thursday, Trump denied reports that there was any damage to U.S. assets, after Iran claimed it had hit multiple U.S. fighter aircraft at a base in Jordan.

“No damage. No nothing,” Trump said, when asked if there was any truth to the reports.

Economic pressure

Washington is continuing efforts to isolate Iran from its economic network, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent flagging sanctions against “a large bank” next week.

“We’re going to do it on Monday because we want to honor the memory of our fallen citizens on 9/11. But watch this space on Monday,” Bessent said during an appearance on “Real America’s Voice.”

Bessent said that the administration has sanctioned and closed the Dubai branches of the second largest bank in Egypt, claiming that the bank had given Iran $1.8 billion dollars. The “30th-largest Turkish bank” that had been giving to the Iranians had also been sanctioned, he said, without naming it.

The U.S. had sanctioned Turkey-based Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi (Golden Global Bank) and its subsidiaries last week.

Trump, in the NewsNation interview, was also asked how Iran could continue holding out under the current economic pressure.

“I don’t know that they’re gonna be able to hold out,” Trump said. “But it’ll get settled after the elections. Or maybe sooner. But it’ll get settled right after the election.”

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Bessent said the 30th largest Turkish bank had been sanctioned. An earlier version misstated the bank’s ranking.