AI search threatens digital economy, researcher warns

Search engines using artificial intelligence could harmfully disrupt the digital economy, warns a researcher at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center.

“(I)f AI search becomes our primary portal to the web, it threatens to disrupt an already precarious digital economy,” wrote Benjamin Brooks in a recent article in the MIT Technology Review.

“Today, the production of online content depends on a fragile set of incentives tied to virtual foot traffic: advertising, subscriptions, donations, sales or brand exposure,” he explained. “By shielding the web behind an omniscient chatbot, AI could deprive search creators of visits and the ‘eyeballs’ they need to survive.”

Brooks urged the AI ​​industry to solve the content compensation problem before others do. “The AI ​​industry should use this narrow window of opportunity to build a smart content marketplace before governments fall back on ineffective interventions, benefit only a few, or impede the free flow of ideas across the web,” he wrote.

“We need to remember that these new systems, these new business models are just taking off,” he added in an interview with TechNewsWorld, “but as we respond to these challenges, it’s important that we do it in a thoughtful, measurable and targeted way. way. That’s why industry should take the lead here.”

“The government is now more confident in regulating content and controlling deals than ever before,” he said. “The AI ​​search industry should be aware of this. With that added pressure in the coming years, industry should step up and develop a smarter solution before government turns to blunter solutions.”

The impact of AI search is unclear

So far, the impact of AI search on content creators’ wallets remains hazy. “It’s not clear yet, but there’s a strong argument that traffic will drop for many publishers,” said Greg Sterling, co-founder. to the mediaA news, commentary, and analysis website.

“The evidence is mixed,” he told TechNewsWorld. “During the Google ‘SGE’ period, there was evidence that organic links were pushed down the page and therefore (were) less visible.” Launched in December 2023, Google’s Search Generative Experience provides an overview of search topics using AI.

“However,” he continued, “there was little research on actual click behavior. Google claims that links in AI results get more engagement. We need to do more research on this.”

Chris Ferris, Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy Pierpont CommunicationsA public relations firm in Houston, added that AI search will exacerbate the problem that already exists with traditional search. “Most web pages don’t get any traffic from organic search,” he told TechNewsWorld.

He cites research published by Search Engine Land and predicts that organic traffic will fall between 18% and 64% due to AI search.

Mark N. Vena, President and Chief Analyst SmartTech Research Las Vegas noted that there is growing evidence that AI-driven search, such as generative AI summaries in search engines, has reduced click-through rates on content providers’ websites, as users increasingly receive information directly from AI responses.

“News outlets and niche content creators report less traffic from traditional search sources while AI systems generate comprehensive answers,” he told TechNewsWorld. “While detailed impact studies are underway, this trend indicates a potential risk to publishers’ ad revenue and visibility.”

“Without a doubt, AI-powered search tools risk reducing traffic to content providers’ sites, potentially reducing advertising revenue and customer models,” he added.

“Without users clicking on original sources, content creators may struggle to monetize their work, threatening the sustainability of quality journalism and niche content. Balancing AI-powered benefits with adequate attribution and redirection of content providers will be essential to preserve a healthy digital content ecosystem.”

Eyeball Apocalypse Overture

Dev Nag, CEO and Founder QueryPalAn enterprise chatbot based in San Francisco, asserting that AI search will destroy content creation by stealing eyeballs fundamentally misunderstands how the content ecosystem has evolved.

“Think about how we’ve transitioned from paid newspapers and centralized TV/movie studios to ad-supported online content,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Every change brings predictions of doom, yet we’ve ended up with more content — and from more content creators — than ever before.

“AI is poised to dramatically expand the reach of content through better discovery, translation and personalization. Rather than destroying the content economy, AI search can create a more efficient marketplace where quality content finds its intended audience more effectively.”

He claimed that the evidence so far does not support the “Ible Apocalypse” narrative.

“While AI search is changing how people discover content, we’re seeing content creators create more focused, high-quality content that AI systems can better understand and deliver,” he said. “Real transformation is not about losing eyeballs. It’s about moving from a mass-market advertising model to a more sophisticated monetization system.”

Nag predicts the emergence of two primary models: “content licensing,” where creators pay to learn from and reference their work from AI systems, even if it’s openly available, such as the recent Google-Reddit deal, and a “value-sharing ” system, where AI platforms distribute revenue based on how often a creator references and synthesizes content.

“It is currently possible RAG-based system that are capable of providing clear references — such as Perplexity — and can be adapted to systems that are trained directly through sophisticated attribution tracking,” he explained.

“Search engines can do like TikTok and YouTube and share revenue with creators to feed their services,” added Rob Enderle, president and chief analyst. Enderle GroupBend, Ore. is an advisory services firm.

However, as AI advances, “it may require less and less human intervention, which will be problematic for these future outcomes,” he told TechNewsWorld.

Ross Rubin, Principal Analyst Reticle ResearchA consumer technology advisory firm in New York City, noted that AI search is the culmination of something that has been seen for decades.

“Back in the day, long before AI, there was AskJives,” he told TechNewsWorld. “It didn’t execute the idea very well, but the idea was, instead of getting a whole bunch of links, you got an answer. In many cases, that’s what the searcher wants. It’s a good experience to have information up front and not have to aggregate it or track it from multiple data sources.”

The downside of big content deals

In his essay, Brooks criticized AI companies cutting contracts with major media companies to avoid lawsuits or government interference. “This policy of selective appeasement is ineffective,” he wrote. “It ignores most creators online, who can’t easily opt out of AI search and who don’t have the bargaining power of a legacy publisher.”

“It takes the urgency of reform by pushing back the loudest critics,” he continued. “It legitimizes a few AI firms through secretive and complex commercial contracts, makes it harder for new entrants to get equal terms or equal compensation, and potentially prompts a new wave of search monopolies.”

“In the long run, this could create perverse incentives for AI firms to favor low-cost and low-quality sources over high-quality but more expensive news or content, encouraging a culture of uncritical information consumption in the process.”

At this point in the development of AI search, Sterling said it’s still too early to tell how the game will play out. “We have a lot of assumptions and fears but they need to be tested and real data generated so that we are not operating from a place of pure speculation,” he observed.