Google AI Mode sparks concerns: zero-click searches threaten the web

The rollout of Google’s new AI Mode, the “most powerful AI search experience,” has sparked allegations of content theft, revenue losses for publishers, and even fears of “burying the web alive.”

Google’s AI Mode is a new, advanced conversation search feature where users can chat with the assistant and go deeper through follow-up questions.

Users are familiar with AI Overviews in Search, which only provide concise summaries displayed at the top of Google Search results. AI Mode expands on what AI Overviews could offer with more advanced reasoning and interactions.

A completely overhauled search interface with AI at the center is currently only available to English-speaking users in the US.

The rollout so far has been bumpy. Critics say that the AI Mode further detaches users from the websites they would otherwise visit to get the information they need.

Publishers call this brazen theft because their content will be used without remuneration, and there’s no way to opt out. News/Media Alliance, an advocate group for almost 2,000 media organizations in the US and Canada, argues that AI Mode further deprives publishers of original content, both traffic and revenue.

“Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic and revenue. Now Google just takes content by force and uses it with no return, the definition of theft,” Danielle Coffey, President and CEO of the News/Media Alliance, said in a statement.

“The DOJ remedies must address this to prevent continued domination of the internet by one company.”

The EU Commission has been scrutinizing Google’s AI Overviews due to its impact on the traffic to external websites. Bloomberg reported that Google, behind closed doors, ultimately decided against the possibility for publishers to opt out of AI Overviews.

“We consistently send billions of clicks out to websites each day – that hasn’t changed. With AI Overviews and AI Mode, we’re expanding the range of queries people can do, creating new opportunities to connect people to web content,” said Alzbeta Houzarova, spokesperson at Google.

AI Mode, just like AI Overviews, surfaces relevant links directing people to web pages and content.

Burying the internet alive

AI Mode has also sparked a heated debate on social media. John Herrman, a tech columnist at The Intelligencer, released a technology commentary, “Google is Burying the Web Alive.”

Shared on the Technology subreddit, it accumulated the most upvotes on Tuesday, with over 22,000. The article examines how Google AI Overviews and AI Mode transform search results into summaries directly within the search interface, removing the need for users to visit external websites.

Most redditors shared concerns about the potential negative impact on content creators, saying AI in search results undermines the traditional web.

“Google has been inching toward it even before LLMs exploded,” one of the comments.

”It really removes a lot of the motivation to make a standard website nowadays. You lose traffic increasingly thanks to what is supposed to be a search engine.”

Many complained that AI reviews are often wrong, and the provided summaries are misleading and do not reflect the original sources. The discussion is full of sentiments for the old web.

“Millennials will always have the golden age of the internet,” another Redditor concluded.

“Helpful” ads are coming to AI overviews

While publishers complain about less traffic and revenues, Google is also rolling out ads to its AI-powered search tools, both AI Overviews and AI Mode, to create “more opportunities” for advertisers.

Google boasts that AI helps with user retention on Search.

“In our biggest markets like the US and India, AI Overviews are driving over 10% increase in usage of Google for the types of queries that show AI Overviews,” Google said in a blog post after the Google Marketing Live event last week.

“As people use AI Overviews, we see they’re happier with their results, and they search more often – and we’re even seeing the volume of commercial queries is increasing as well.“

The ads will appear “where relevant,” below, and integrated into AI Mode responses.

For example, if you search for “how to build a website for a small business with limited resources,” the AI mode will provide a step–by-step guide, tips and tricks on how to choose a product, connect with their audience, all the way to testing and launching.

“In some cases, a website builder might be a good next step, so we may show a helpful ad that can help them get started.”

According to Google’s support document, ads can trigger when certain conditions are met, such as when user queries have commercial intent, and Google can show quality ads relevant to the query.

Search and shopping ads from existing specific campaigns are automatically eligible to show in the AI Overviews, and advertisers can’t opt out of serving ads there or directly target ad placements in the AI Overviews. Ads in AI Overviews are reported as Top Ads.

Updated on May 29th [11:30 a.m. GMT] with a statement from Google.