Lycos. Infoseek. Altavista. Yahoo. HotBot. Inktomi. The internet landscape is littered with the corpses and zombies of the high-flying companies that fell victim to Google’s search engine slash money printing empire. Will this reign be interrupted when we ask ChatGPT or one of the other up and coming AI solutions? It’s worth considering. The execs at Google are worried enough that they’ve called in the O.G. (Original Googlers). NYT (Gift Article): Google Calls In Help From Larry Page and Sergey Brin for A.I. Fight. “The new A.I. technology has shaken Google out of its routine. Mr. Pichai declared a ‘code red,’ upending existing plans and jump-starting A.I. development. Google now intends to unveil more than 20 new products and demonstrate a version of its search engine with chatbot features this year.” Google rose during an era when technology was changing human behavior at a breathtaking pace. That will seem like slow motion compared to AI’s world-altering tempo. And with well-funded startups and mega-tech companies all viewing this moment as a gloves-off code red, you can be sure there will be no slowing down to examine whether what we’re unleashing will be good or bad for us. I’d Ask Jeeves, but these days, his searches are powered by Google.

+ “No single technology in modern memory has caused mass job loss among highly educated workers. Will generative AI really be an exception?” The Atlantic’s Annie Lowrey asked an expert: ChatGPT. How ChatGPT Will Destabilize White-Collar Work.