Google Eats Its Own Tail (and Profits) With AI Summaries as Stock Price Plunges

Big tech firms have poured an infinite amount of money into artificial intelligence development and rolled out tools without any consideration as to whether consumers actually want them or not, all based on the theory that eventually they’ll figure out how to turn a profit. Instead, early returns seem to suggest they’ve simply figured out a way to eat their own profits without an obvious way to replace that revenue stream.

That is at least the case for Google, which, on a Wednesday earnings call, revealed that its “AI Mode” has cut into its traditional search and advertising business. Philipp Schindler, chief business officer at Google, said that the AI-generated responses that Google now overwhelmingly serves to users whenever they search for anything have made it more difficult for Google to monetize results, cutting into its usually extremely profitable advertising business and contributing to the company missing its revenue projections in its latest…