Welcome, humans.
Assuming Scarlett Johansson is the new voice behind ChatGPT, we can’t help but wonder how much OpenAI is paying her. It has to be more than she made from filming the movie Her, right?!
Hit us with your best guess via email, and we'll feature our top picks on Monday!
Here’s what you need to know about AI today:
- AI might reduce search engine volume by 25% by 2026.
- Publishers could witness a 20-60% decline in traffic from Google SGE.
- There might be a clash between Google SGE and Search’s business model.
- ElevenLabs just launched a tool that reads your screen content.
On the podcast: Pete’s analysis of Google’s major AI launches and how Google stacks up against the competition. (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube).
Keep an eye on the future of AI search.
Google SGE
Would you prefer to launch a revolutionary A+ product or keep selling a B-level product that rakes in hundreds of billions more?
That’s the question Google might be asking itself right now.
See, it has this little tool you might’ve heard of called Google Search. But Search isn’t the greatest product anymore—it’s bogged down by ads and spam.
Then there’s this thing called AI search. Instead of bombarding me with 10 articles about “yoga poses for back pain” (true story), it just hands me the best summary instantly.
It’s a way better UX. But in this new world, Google could potentially lose revenue from that yoga publisher that wanted a better placement.
“there’s a conflict between serving the user and serving the advertiser.”
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas
So, what’s Google's play? Likely, a mix of AI AND ads.
We know that Google is rolling out AI search to all its users, and soon enough, you’ll probably see ads in those summaries.
Google will still want to send traffic to folks offering tangible products and services like sneakers or SaaS—things AI can't conjure from thin air.
- For example, a yoga mat retailer could pay to appear in the search results for “best yoga mats.”
- Perplexity, an AI search startup, is also considering placing ads in its search results.
This ushers in a new era where companies optimize for visibility in AI search results, not Google Search.
It’s the “10 best yoga poses” types of publishers that are in trouble. In other words, hte type of content that AI can create on its own. Some insiders expect declines of up to 20-60% in traffic sent to some publishers due to SGE.
Fair or not, it’s happening.
Even further into the future are AI action engines. Imagine a search engine like Google SGE or Perplexity that doesn’t just deliver answers but takes action. For instance, “Book a spot in the nearest yoga class tomorrow morning.”
Some think this might be what OpenAI is working toward (perhaps a reason for delaying its AI search tool). Google is also developing search agents capable of more than just answering questions:
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Around the Horn.
- Grok is expanding to European users.
- Google’s watermarking tool for AI-generated content, SynthID, now extends to Gemini and Veo, its new video generator.
- Replit, which is building an AI coding assistant, cut 20% of its staff.
Treats To Try.
- Khanmigo is an AI tutor from Khan Academy who helps students solve problems.
- ElevenLabs Reader is a new tool that can vocalize text from your screen—web pages, PDFs, and other documents—in 11 voices.
- Decagon is a popular AI customer support agent for enterprises.
- PaddleBoat lets you practice your sales pitch to different AI buyer personas.
- GPTEngineer is a coding AI that prototypes real web apps super fast.
Intelligent Insights.
- Deepfakes of your dead loved ones are a booming Chinese business (link).
- Hollywood at a Crossroads: “Everyone Is Using AI, But They Are Scared to Admit It” (link).
- Google I/O was an AI evolution, not a revolution (link).
- Google is redesigning its search engine — and it’s AI all the way down (link).
- Dwarkesh Podcast: John Schulman (OpenAI Cofounder) - Reasoning, RLHF, & Plan for 2027 AGI (link).
A Cat's Commentary.
