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Google might make users pay for AI features in search results

Google might start charging for access to search results that use generative artificial intelligence tools. That's according to a new Financial Times report citing "three people with knowledge of [Google's] plans."

Charging for any part of the search engine at the core of its business would be a first for Google, which has funded its search product solely with ads since 2000. But it's far from the first time Google would charge for AI enhancements in general; the "AI Premium" tier of a Google One subscription costs $10 more per month than a standard "Premium" plan, for instance, while "Gemini Business" adds $20 a month to a standard Google Workspace subscription.

While those paid products offer access to Google's high-end "Gemini Advanced" AI model, Google also offers free access to its less performant, plain "Gemini" model without any kind of paid subscription.

Scrollone ,

If I have to pay for Google, I'd rather pay Kagi.

EnderMB ,

I'm all for this!

It's what basically every other AI tool wants to do, because building and operating LLM's at this scale is horrifically expensive.

So let them do it. Those that want these tools will pay, and the 99.999% of people that don't give a fuck about AI can just continue as normal.

Hell, if Google want to deshitify their search by removing the ML nonsense they've been loading into it for the last decade or so, even better! Let me pay for that too, and I'll pay them exactly nothing.

harrybo93 ,
@harrybo93@lemmy.world avatar

“Pay for this thing you never wanted or you won’t get it!!!”

Oh no! Anyway.

eronth ,

Oh thank god, I'll be able to avoid seeing it by just not paying.

JackGreenEarth ,
@JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee avatar

You could also avoid seeing it by using a different search engine.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I don't even want those features for free, why would I pay for it? lol

tsonfeir ,
@tsonfeir@lemm.ee avatar

Who is Google?

Hamartiogonic , (edited )
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

Once upon a time, in the vast land of Internet, there was a magical library called Web. The library had many librarians, but a wise old owl by the name of Google was the most popular one. Everyone in the kingdom of knowledge loved him. People asked him questions, and Google gave them the answers. Life was good.

However, in the dark corners of the Internet, in the Swamps of Bottomless Greed, there lurked an evil litch queen Seo. She only wanted to watch the world burn, and so she cast an evil curse on Google. The curse of Seo made Google give completely wrong answer. As chaos, ignorance and lies spread cross the land, queen Seo laughed in her castle.

The end.

Good night, sweet dreams.

tsonfeir ,
@tsonfeir@lemm.ee avatar

I think this lets Google off the hook. I think Google wanted to be the only librarian because Google was jealous of the other librarians, so they went to the swamp of greed and negotiated with the evil queen.

Hamartiogonic , (edited )
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

Had to leave out so much from this version. Maybe there should be a director’s cut, part 2 or something. 😁

I already have some ideas for a sequel, where an evil necromancer Meta unleashes the Cancer of Facebook on the entire Internet. Later, he assassinates a competing wizard called WhatsApp and resurrects his decaying corpse thought the use of foul magic and necromancy. Now that Meta has corrupted WhatsApp, he can harness the immense power of his new minion to further increase the destruction caused by the Cancer of Facebook that is already beginning to spread across the Internet.

HobbitFoot ,

Probably because they haven't figured out a way to tie Ad-sense to an AI engine.

TORFdot0 ,

Good news, in my opinion. I don't think users see the value in of AI and so maybe sites will go back to catering to organic results instead.

Just kidding Google will just make the non-AI search experience so bad that people are forced to sign up for their AI subscription

cybersandwich ,

My first thought was "thank God! Maybe I won't have to scroll past their AI results to get to actual search results".

Kagi needs better android integration. I hate searching ony phone now because I can't use kagi easily.

Holyginz ,

It's already bad, they don't have to do anything to make it bad. The real issue will be if they try to make it so it's AI or nothing.

brlemworld ,

Right?! I've switched to Duck Duck Go 🦆

Imgonnatrythis ,

Would love to see Google do pay to play for this instead of devious pay with your usage data and ads (although likely they will do both)

Codilingus ,

The largest number in the world isn't big enough to describe the % chance they double dip. Ironically I think the 2nd largest numbers are called googols, after grahams number, IIRC.

Imgonnatrythis ,

I'm not entirely sure that's how percentages work here, but regardless maybe they'll give you a reach around or something on this plan at least...

carl_dungeon ,

Good!

evergreen ,

Paying for the privilege of using AI to sift through the vast bleak sea of AI generated garbage. What a time to be alive!

pastermil ,

Something something they make us buy the cure for the disease they created?

coffeebiscuit ,

This means we won’t be getting the results we already get.

Or we are going to get the results we got when google was good, but with money.

“We ruin results until payments improve.”

magic_lobster_party ,

Hopefully this will backfire and just push people to use alternative search engines. Unlike YouTube and other subscription services, Google Search doesn’t have any exclusive rights to content.

jaemo ,

It will. 5, maybe 8 years ago, google mighta gotten this one over on us, but it's way too late. I don't even trust google search results anymore, haven't used it to look up something in over a year. Maps, sure. Web search? Nahp.

Whirling_Cloudburst ,

Imagine me paying to give my data to feed their info beast. No thanks. I can run my own AI tools.

SpaceNoodle ,

Good, that means they won't try to force them on me.

Moghul ,

They will absolutely try to force the paid feature on you. How many times have you seen the youtube premium prompt?

QuadratureSurfer ,
@QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world avatar

It's been a long time since I've seen that... but I mostly watch YouTube through Grayjay, or on a browser with adblocking enabled.

Moghul ,

I don't have that blocked, and use the youtube website, so I see it at least once a week.

QuadratureSurfer ,
@QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world avatar

You don't use any adblockers on YouTube?

Moghul ,

I do, I just don't have the premium prompt blocked

QuadratureSurfer ,
@QuadratureSurfer@lemmy.world avatar

Ah, sorry, I didn't realize that there was an ad-blocker that didn't block the premium prompt.

Moghul ,

I mean I have ublock origin and it still shows up between rows of videos.

SpaceNoodle ,

None

FiskFisk33 ,

Does that mean I can opt out? nice!

alexdeathway ,
@alexdeathway@programming.dev avatar

that doesn't mean they would not feed your data to that LLM.

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