I asked Claude this morning about the most important news in tech. A few follow-up questions about Salesforce’s Dreamforce, Samsung’s XR headset, & TSMC earnings later, I popped over to ChatGPT Pulse. It suggested some updates about the Fed’s rates policy. Then, I listened to podcasts through Gemini-powered AI transcriptions.
All of my news was filtered through AI.
Fifty years ago, most Americans received their news through one of three major television stations : CBS, ABC & NBC. Edward R. Murrow ended his CBS broadcast with “Good night, & good luck.”
Then cable exploded the channel count from 10 to 100 to 1000, serving every possible interest. Social media fragmented conversations further. But AI is a countervailing force.
What if AI is the new CBS, ABC, & NBC, the new mass-media?
The Economist argues AI is killing the web. Who will visit web pages in a few years? Instead of visiting many links, we ask AIs to summarize & prioritize. The traffic drop is real & immediate.
I see it in my behavior. I’d hazard a guess I visit 10% of the websites I did a year ago.
Why sift through pages and pages, when I can have an answer to my question, with all the relevant context across hundreds of sites? Web browsing feels like the card catalog and Google.com like the Dewey Decimal system - anachronisms of legacy information retrieval taught to schoolchildren.
The networks are back. This time, they are probabilistic.
Good morning. Your briefing is ready.