Internet

Axios - Google's shift toward AI-generated search results, displacing the familiar list of links, is rewiring the internet — and could accelerate the decline of the 30+-year-old World Wide Web. A world where Google answers most questions in a single machine voice makes online life more convenient — and duller. Google has steadily ramped up its AI-generated results since ChatGPT came on the scene in late 2022. Now, Google is rolling out AI Overviews to everyone in the U.S. That means the world's most popular search engine will answer many or most queries with a paragraph or two written by generative AI. Publishers and retailers are terrified this will cut deep into their referral traffic and decimate their businesses.By making it less inviting for humans to contribute to the web's collective pool of knowledge, Google's summary answers could leave AI tools with less accurate, less timely and less interesting information.  More