Google's AI search overhaul threatens to destroy journalism, argues SFGATE columnist
By
Drew Magary
Hot, fresh, and worth queueing round the block for.
Summary
Drew Magary argues that Google's shift toward AI-generated search results (SGE - Search Generative Experience) will devastate the journalism industry by removing the incentive for writers to create original content. He explains how SEO has long dictated how journalists write, but Google's new AI approach threatens to cut off traffic to publishers entirely by providing direct answers without linking to sources. The piece critiques Google's monopoly power, its hypocrisy in using journalistic content to train AI while starving publishers of revenue, and predicts a future where the internet becomes a barren wasteland of AI-generated content with no human-created journalism.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledIf you want people to read your work, and I do, you must pay tribute to the SEO gods if you want to survive.
Google is now going to use AI to answer your questions directly, so that you never have to click on a link ever again. That means no more traffic for the sites that Google has been leeching off of for years.
Google is going to use your content to train its AI, and then use that AI to make sure no one ever visits your site again.
The internet is about to become a ghost town, populated only by bots talking to other bots.
Google doesn't hate you. Google hates the idea of you leaving Google.
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