The New Yorker: AI answers are killing search — Alphabet lost $500B in one day
ArtificialOther · x · 2026-11-11
Kyle Chayka's New Yorker column argues digital search is in crisis. Gmail jumps to AI summaries instead of finding addresses, Google Maps guesses where you want to go, and AI Overviews (or full AI Mode) generate their own, not always correct, answers instead of blue links. It's now a business-model problem: more than half of Google's revenue comes from search ads, but if users stop clicking out, ads lose value. Google's chief business officer admitted 'lower monetization' on AI searches; Alphabet stock fell nearly a quarter afterward — about $500B, its largest single-day drop. Can the internet as we know it survive when AI answers everything?
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