Still, early slip ups – like the times when Google’s AI Overviews told people to eat rocks and add glue to pizza recipes – linger in the public consciousness. Google jumps to fix errors, but on a recent Thursday in 2025, one year into AI Overviews, the AI said it wasn’t Thursday and it wasn’t 2025. My mistake.
Research suggests that AI could even produce an echo-chamber effect with the very misinformation it hallucinates – something computer scientists have coined “chat chambers“. A Google spokesperson says its AI is designed to match your interests without limiting what you find on the web.
While the spectre of the machine web is disquieting for many who build and depend on the internet, Google paints a different, vibrant picture. “You will see us five years from now sending a lot of traffic out to the web. I think that’s the product direction we are committed to,” Pichai told Decoder. Google tells the BBC its vision is one where AI enhances search, builds on the types of questions users can ask, and ultimately expands opportunities to create and discover content, albeit in potentially different ways.
“I’m not going to predict what is going to happen, because, of course, the future is multifactorial,” says Cory Doctorow, a longtime technology advocate and writer of the upcoming book Enshittification about the decay of online platforms. “But, if I were still someone who valued Google as a way to find information or to have my information found, I’d be really worried about this.”
But he also feels it could be a moment for internet users to push for the changes they want to see. “It’s a crisis we shouldn’t let go to waste,” says Doctorow. “Google’s about to do something that’s going to make people really angry. My first thought is ‘Okay, great. What can we do to capitalise on that anger?’ It’s a chance to build a coalition.”
