After the rise of ChatGPT, Google’s Search Ads business might struggle if people stop “searching”. So, is putting AI features behind a paywall a better solution? Let’s discuss it!
Highlights:
- Financial Times reported Google is planning to charge for some of its premium AI search features in the future.
- If true, this is the first-ever paywall a big tech company will have implemented for its core product.
- The report also mentioned that they are working on this service currently but executives are still split on its launch.
Google’s AI Search Features behind Paywall?
According to the Financial Times (FT), Google is said to be looking at whether to add certain AI-powered search features to its premium subscription services which already offer access to its new AI assistant called Gemini.
Google recently brought AI features to its Google One plan, paid users will be able to access Gemini within their other products, like Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets and Meet.
The reports mentioned that the company is already working on the technology for this service, but no concrete decision has been made to launch it or not. They are still sure as it changes the core business model of the company and how it operates.
Google’s core product is its Search and showing Advertisements on the search results pages. In 2023, they earned about $175 billion from those Search Ads. Companies want to advertise on Google Search because people around the globe come to find information on it daily.
But after ChatGPT came out, the growing concern was that users would get all the information by asking the AI chatbot directly. They don’t have to go through a collection of links that Google provides. This will directly reduce traffic and hence, the advertising revenue will slowly come down.
However, the report clearly stated that their traditional search engine would remain free for users. Google has maintained a 90% (or higher) share of the global search market, even as AI tools have grown in use. Even Microsoft’s Bing, after its partnership with OpenAI, has not been able to eat any big market share from its competitor.
Google itself is working with AI on its Search, where they tested ‘Search Generative Experience’ or ‘SGE’ last year. While it can become the answer to ChatGPT, it is also too costly for them. It takes a lot of computing power to generate such AI responses, adding up more operating costs.
Also, SGE is not good for the publishing industry. Marc McCollum, executive vice president of innovation at Raptive, SGE can decrease the ad revenue loss by as much as $2 billion annually for publishers
Is it Good or Bad?
There are two angles to putting paywalls around the technology that AI will bring, particularly in the search engine results.
One viewpoint promotes the democratization of access, allowing access to this transformative technology, and believes that putting paywalls limiting the flow of premium information will also limit societal advancement.
The other side of that coin is that limiting these features behind paywalls aids in moderating the content, making sure there are some ethical considerations on what that content looks like.
Other AI companies that have AI products and services do have existing paywalls for their more premium models and features. Then why is this causing a stir for Google?
That may be because of how expansive Google is. You can see the advancements in the AI space they are trying to make but because it’s such a widely used search engine, it feels a bit unnatural to have a part of that to be paid just because of the impact that they have. Search as a service is supposed to be open and available to everybody.
Till then, here are some AI features that have come to Google Maps, worth trying once.
Conclusion
Overall, the response to this supposed move has been lukewarm from the AI community! Google has also not substantiated these rumours. Is it another mistake? Or is it a necessity for the new-age AI world? The future will tell!
