By: Tomos Land, Staff Writer
Last month, Google unveiled its new artificial intelligence (AI) model, Gemini 3.5 Flash, which allows users to conduct multi-step tasks. This latest iteration of Google’s AI model promises greater latitude for users who are eager to engage with an AI agent from the start of their query all the way until the end. However, this newest advancement in the company’s artificial intelligence push threatens to further monopolize the internet by giving Google the ability to wield even more power over companies and individuals who rely on the search engine for much of their business traffic.
Initially expected to become the default setting after its unveiling, this now-scrapped idea still removes users from the process of searching, filtering, and exploring the results page that has become synonymous with Google. This latest development to Search, even if not rolled out more extensively in the future, pushes more people towards using the feature. Already, entire industries have poured millions of dollars into search engine optimization (SEO) to tweak website titles, web addresses, and backend development to rank as highly as possible on search engines results page. Now, companies who have already spent a substantial amount of resources contorting themselves to adapt to new core updates, could find themselves back at square one.
Everyone is impacted by including AI in the search process.
Small businesses and creators don’t have the disposable income needed to hire an in-house SEO specialist and are reliant on the whims of Google’s search engine rankings to reach new customer bases.
In addition, Google’s AI Mode has shown itself to be susceptible to being easily manipulated to spread misinformation making it harder to find accurate information. The move to double down on a technology that lacks transparency and can produce substantially varying results raises questions about the search engine’s future role in shaping commerce. Search is one of the company’s most reliable revenue streams, making up about 56% of its revenue in the last three years.
In the context of the capitalist economy, the tech behemoth’s investment in AI makes perfect sense. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, who lost a groundbreaking antitrust case in 2024, knows better than most the power monopolization brings. They will be watching the imminent Initial Public Offerings, where companies list and sell their shares publicly, of AI-companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic with a mix of envy and fear in the coming months. Alphabet, valued at more than $4 trillion, are well aware that a failure to adapt to the AI-age will leave them susceptible to the predatory tactics they used to reach their lofty valuation in the first place.
Trillion dollar valuations aside, the companies and creators whose profit margins are perilously impacted by the smallest drop in internet traffic will suffer most from Google’s double down on AI. The cascading impacts of this change may drive more businesses to cheaper advertising alternatives, such as social media channels, including Alphabet-owned YouTube. In any case, small business owners and individual creators will continue to be at the mercy of international conglomerates chasing even greater dividends.
