AI search engines: robbers or saviors of the internet?

The best-known applications of artificial intelligence (AI) are without a doubt text and imagine generators like ChatGPT and MidJourney. In previous blog posts, we wrote about how to use these as a creative professional, but also the various ethical considerations. In this article, we’ll be discussing a third and equally important AI application: search engines.

Several popular search engines (Google and Bing) added AI technology to their service in order to refine search results almost immediately after it became feasible to do so. There have also sprung up new engines built around AI from the start, such as Perplexity. and SearchGPT. The way an AI-driven search query differs from a regular one is that the answers are offered right away, rather than linking you to a list of sites. For instance, asking “how do you bake an apple pie?” prompts an immediate recipe and instructions.

Does this mean websites are getting robbed?

This information doesn’t come out of the blue, of course: the search engines generate these answers based on what they find on existing websites. It’ll come as no surprise that this practice has raised a lot of eyebrows. Some people are excited about the possibilities, others afraid that this technology effectively steals their content (and with that, traffic that would otherwise lead to their website). Are these search engines genuinely based on “theft”?

How AI-driven search engines work

For the answer to that, we’ll first have to look at how search engines like SearchGPT operate. These systems are trained on huge amounts of publicly available data, such as blog articles and posts. They use this information to provide answers to queries, but don’t copy existing texts. Instead, they learn to recognize language patterns and generate new answers by dissecting and rearranging information from different sources. Whether this is completely legal, remains a matter of discussion: information being “publicly available” doesn’t automatically mean it is free to (re)use. At the same time, rearranging existing works can be viewed as an act of collage, or creating something new from multiple original sources. It’s clear that this totally new field is still testing the boundaries of copyright law.

Recognition and citation

One argument for AI search engines is that they handle their sources with care. With every result, they reveal and list the websites and other sources they used to generate it. This can be the jumping point for users to dive into the subject on those very websites that offered the information. This gives those a necessary amount of recognition and possibly additional traffic. In this way the search engine is no thief, but an explorer of content helping users through the jungle. Exactly what a search engine is supposed to do.

AI as an assistant, not a competitor

A consequence of this is that it motivates website owners and builders to publish quality content. Although this argument, admittedly, is still slightly utopian. In these early stages of the technology, AI has proven to be more than willing to serve random nonsense because it can’t yet discern between fact and fiction. The AI is “hallucinating” in these instances. Whether these are teething problems or inherent flaws, is still unknown. But let us think utopian for a while: it would mean that we are, going forward, rewarded for placing interesting, high-grade content! Quality wins out over quantity, wouldn’t that be great on the internet?

In the best case scenario, AI search engines will also reduce the pressure on websites to optimize their content to fit those same engines. This would be a huge boon, because SEO has the drawback of occasionally warping texts to make them seem written for machines rather than humans. Somewhat forced and filled with repetition—that’s not how human language works. If we could reconquer some of this terrain, that would be a big win.

It depends on how the technology develops

Utopia left aside, fact is that AI is a technology like any other: amoral, a tool. Depending on the way it is applied, it can enrich the existing (creative) landscape or thwart it. The tech companies behind this innovation are by no means driven by ideological motivations: disruption is their magic word. Enough reason to be suspicious. Still, you can make a perfectly fine case that AI is still so early days, that start-up problems are to be expected, just as the fierce debate that has surged around it. The latter is necessary to remove some of the bottlenecks. If creatives are successful at defending their points, AI could in the future become a useful and willing partner in all facets of their work.

In the case of AI-driven search engines: those are based on cleverly combining information to deliver new and relevant answers. This technology challenged creative professionals like website builders, designers, translators and copywriters to adapt. But it also creates opportunities. By embracing AI as a tool instead of a threat, the professional can keep growing in a world where technology and creativity go hand in hand.

Conclusion

Despite the thorny legal complications surrounding AI and copyright infringement, applying it to search engines doesn’t necessarily spell the end for individual websites. In the best case, it’ll generate additional traffic and create motivation to offer quality information—on top of the content a website might offer to convince users to stick around. It’s an extra “point of entry”. You could even explain that as a sound improvement over the old way search engines operate, with algorithms and SEO-driven rankings that often distract from what you, as a brand, actually want to do: creating compelling content and offering a great experience.