Plan would represent a first for what has been a completely ad-funded search engine.

Google might start charging for access to search results that use generative artificial intelligence tools. That’s according to a new Financial Times report citing “three people with knowledge of [Google’s] plans.”

Charging for any part of the search engine at the core of its business would be a first for Google, which has funded its search product solely with ads since 2000. But it’s far from the first time Google would charge for AI enhancements in general; the “AI Premium” tier of a Google One subscription costs $10 more per month than a standard “Premium” plan, for instance, while “Gemini Business” adds $20 a month to a standard Google Workspace subscription.

While those paid products offer access to Google’s high-end “Gemini Advanced” AI model, Google also offers free access to its less performant, plain “Gemini” model without any kind of paid subscription.

  • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    772·
    7 months ago

    Oh no, if I don’t give them money, I won’t get LLM enshitification? The horror!

  • evergreen@lemmy.worldEnglish
    463·
    7 months ago

    Paying for the privilege of using AI to sift through the vast bleak sea of AI generated garbage. What a time to be alive!

  • TORFdot0@lemmy.worldEnglish
    241·
    7 months ago

    Good news, in my opinion. I don’t think users see the value in of AI and so maybe sites will go back to catering to organic results instead.

    Just kidding Google will just make the non-AI search experience so bad that people are forced to sign up for their AI subscription

    • Holyginz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      17·
      7 months ago

      It’s already bad, they don’t have to do anything to make it bad. The real issue will be if they try to make it so it’s AI or nothing.

    • cybersandwich@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      7 months ago

      My first thought was “thank God! Maybe I won’t have to scroll past their AI results to get to actual search results”.

      Kagi needs better android integration. I hate searching ony phone now because I can’t use kagi easily.

  • eronth@lemmy.worldEnglish
    221·
    7 months ago

    Oh thank god, I’ll be able to avoid seeing it by just not paying.

  • coffeebiscuit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    7 months ago

    This means we won’t be getting the results we already get.

    Or we are going to get the results we got when google was good, but with money.

    “We ruin results until payments improve.”

    • magic_lobster_party@kbin.run
      15·
      7 months ago

      Hopefully this will backfire and just push people to use alternative search engines. Unlike YouTube and other subscription services, Google Search doesn’t have any exclusive rights to content.

      • jaemo@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        7 months ago

        It will. 5, maybe 8 years ago, google mighta gotten this one over on us, but it’s way too late. I don’t even trust google search results anymore, haven’t used it to look up something in over a year. Maps, sure. Web search? Nahp.

  • Harry@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    7 months ago

    “Pay for this thing you never wanted or you won’t get it!!!”

    Oh no! Anyway.

  • EnderMB@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    7 months ago

    I’m all for this!

    It’s what basically every other AI tool wants to do, because building and operating LLM’s at this scale is horrifically expensive.

    So let them do it. Those that want these tools will pay, and the 99.999% of people that don’t give a fuck about AI can just continue as normal.

    Hell, if Google want to deshitify their search by removing the ML nonsense they’ve been loading into it for the last decade or so, even better! Let me pay for that too, and I’ll pay them exactly nothing.