- Google is adding a new AI feature to search results
- ‘Expert Advice’ summarizes tips from forums and social media
- But it risks undermining the very sources it’s cribbing from
Over the last couple of years, Google has increasingly been working AI into its search results — type anything into the search engine these days and you’ll likely see an AI-generated answer ahead of any websites. Now it looks as if the search giant has plans to weave AI ever more tightly into its offering by including "Expert Advice" from sources such as Reddit and social media.
According to an official Google blog post, people often look for advice from other humans when using Google. In response to that, Google’s AI responses will now include “a preview of perspectives from public online discussions, social media, and other firsthand sources.”
As per Google’s examples, these will take the form of a quote extracted from the original website, with the source name listed below, all housed in an “Expert Advice” section.
For instance, Google says if you’re searching for advice on how to take better photos of the Northern Lights, the Expert Advice area might show tips on setting the correct exposure, adjusting your camera’s ISO speed, not using a smartphone, and more.
Google might not always use the Expert Advice label — other examples in the blog post included “Perspectives on Natural Weeding” and “Community Experiences.” These will seemingly depend on the subject you’re searching for.
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On the face of it, Google’s Expert Advice section could be a helpful way to quickly get the key information you’re searching for instead of needing to rummage through various websites in search of the answer.
But there’s certainly a degree of irony here. After all, websites such as Reddit are so popular because users want genuine help from other people, not AI-generated content — the human aspect is the entire point. Yet Google seems to have seen that fact and has set its AI loose on these sources, swallowing and commodifying their knowledge and reducing the human element in the process.
And there’s another risk here. By regurgitating the best advice from various forums and social media sites, Google’s AI could take clicks away 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 for Google’s AI to summarize in the first place.
While I’ve no doubt that behemoths such as Reddit will be just fine with Google’s latest AI move, it’s the smaller sites that I’m more concerned about — sites who will have their key tips and tricks reproduced by Google without any of the associated web traffic. And the internet would be a much poorer place if they go under, leaving Google’s ravenous AI and, more importantly, human readers without the vital resources that they were searching out.
