⚡️Google AI to Replace Google Search

Hey TEDchats Fam!

Happy Friday! Imagine opening your new coffee shop in a bustling city, only to find the streets eerily empty one day — no morning rush, no familiar faces, just silence. For small businesses on the web, Google’s new AI search features feel the same. Suddenly, the digital highways bringing visitors to their sites have gone quiet, leaving them to wonder: How will we survive this unexpected blackout?

👀 SNEAK PEEK

🚨FEATURE STORY

Google’s AI Search: The End of Traffic for Small Websites?

What happens when the platform that underpins the entire web suddenly stops sending traffic to your site? Welcome to a new era where Google Search slows down in funneling users to third-party websites, and the impact is already being felt.

The Backbone of the Internet

For years, Google has been the backbone of the internet ecosystem. Websites are optimized to rank in Google Search, built to function seamlessly in Google Chrome, and monetized through Google's advertising technologies. This pervasive influence makes Google almost invisible in its dominance.

What Happens When AI Takes Over?

Earlier this month, Google released AI Overviews to all U.S. users, allowing us to receive AI-generated summaries by simply typing our question into Google Search. Despite AI Overviews answering some searches with questionable answers, the company revealed plans to expand the features within AI Overviews and begin testing AI-directed advertisements. For instance, if you search for ways to remove wrinkles from clothes, the AI Overview might not only provide AI-generated tips but also display a "Sponsored" section showcasing products like wrinkle spray from retailers such as Walmart and Instacart.

It's clear that Google plans to deeply integrate AI into our search experiences, and it is only a matter of time before these features are refined and become a part of our daily lives. However, the impact of having an AI search feature at the top of Google’s search results page has raised increasing concern, particularly for small businesses that depend on current Google searches to gain visibility and direct traffic to their websites.

The Problem: If AI-powered search results are summarizing everything for us at the top of the page and even providing relevant products via AI-directed ads or solutions via AI-powered tips, why would we look any further and visit a webpage?

The Survival Challenge for Small Websites

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and media executives from organizations like The New York Times and Fandom have yet to offer concrete solutions for small websites. Meanwhile, these small websites must navigate the changes independently, striving to adapt to a landscape where traditional traffic sources are drying up.

As Google continues to evolve, the future of independent websites remains uncertain, prompting questions about how digital content creators will survive in a world where Google’s algorithms increasingly favor larger, more SEO-savvy competitors who are able to become a part of the AI's search response. The challenge for these smaller sites will be to innovate and find new ways to attract and retain their audiences. You can find more information on the matter here, here, and here.

🧑‍💻 DAILY PROMPT

🍕 QUICK BITES

Anthropic Unleashes Custom AI Assistants

Anthropic’s new feature for its AI chatbot Claude now enables users to create personalized AI assistants. Dubbed "tool use", this feature allows these bots to interact with any external API, offering functions like email management, shopping assistance, or even interior design consultation based on image analysis. Accessible through Anthropic Messages API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Vertex AI, this tool is versatile and relatively affordable, with pricing based on text volume processed. This advancement represents a major progression in the evolution of AI, akin to OpenAI’s GPTs, rendering it more accessible and adaptable for a diverse array of applications (see Anthropic’s announcements here and here).

New AI-Powered Voice Search on Fire TV!

Amazon is enhancing Fire TV with AI-powered voice search capabilities that allow Alexa to handle open-ended questions about movies and TV shows. This new feature will roll out in a few weeks to U.S. residents with Fire TV devices running Fire OS 6 or later. Soon, users will be able to ask their TV questions like 'What movie has the line, "You're killing me, Smalls?"' or request tailored recommendations based on their preferences and streaming subscriptions. This marks another step in Amazon’s efforts to integrate generative AI into its devices, enhancing the viewing experience with personalized and intuitive features (see Amazon’s announcement).

Microsoft Challenges MacBook Air Dominance

Microsoft is boldly claiming its new Copilot Plus PCs, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite, outshine Apple’s MacBook Air M3. Highlights include a 50% better performance in Cinebench 2024 multithreaded workloads and a 16% higher Geekbench 6 multithreaded score. In real-world tasks, the Surface Laptop encoded a 4K video faster than the MacBook Air M3, clocking in at just over five minutes. Moreover, Microsoft's new laptop excels in battery life, lasting nearly 17 hours on web browsing compared to the MacBook Air's 15.5 hours and delivering over 20 hours of video playback. With these benchmarks, Microsoft sets the stage for a competitive showdown in the ultrabook market, positioning the Surface Laptop as a formidable contender against Apple's bestseller (see Microsoft’s review here and The Verge’s review here).

🧰 AI TOOLBOX 

🤯 MIND SPARK

OpenAI Releases 5 Exciting Announcements:

• Free ChatGPT users can now access a suite of advanced features previously reserved for paid subscribers, including custom GPTs, data analytics, chart creation, and more, albeit with some limitations (read more).

• ChatGPT MacOS desktop app is now available to Plus and Team users, with a broader rollout planned for the coming weeks and a Windows version set to launch later this year (read more).

• ChatGPT Edu has launched and is tailored for universities to responsibly deploy AI to students, faculty, researchers, and campus operations. Powered by GPT-4o, it supports reasoning across text and vision, alongside advanced tools like data analysis (read more).

• OpenAI for Nonprofits has been announced, offering discounted access to ChatGPT. This includes ChatGPT Team at $20 per month per user, and larger nonprofits can receive a 50% discount on ChatGPT Enterprise (read more).

• OpenAI has published a ‘public threats’ report detailing their effective interventions in thwarting covert influence operations aiming to utilize their models for deceitful purposes across the internet (read more).

Perplexity AI Launches a ‘Shareable’ Feature: Perplexity AI introduces Perplexity Pages, enabling users to transform search queries into detailed, visually appealing, and shareable web pages (see Perplexity’s announcement).

Alo Steps into Mixed Reality on Meta Quest 3: Experience a new level of immersive fitness with Alo Moves’ 3D classes on Meta Quest 3, where lifelike instructors guide you through yoga, pilates, and meditation in stunning virtual environments. Launching later this year, it will be complete with movable “mini-instructors” so you can easily see poses or movements from any angle (see Meta’s announcement).

🎨 AI ART