While Microsoft and Google press ahead developing AI in their search engines, what will happen to the search engines like DuckDuckGo (DDG) or Brave search, or others? These small, independent, privacy-friendly search services are tiny compared to the tech giants. Will AI obliterate small, independent search services? (Or see their usage drop further?) Can AI be incroporated in other search services?
The incumbents already have the advantage. We need regulation. Consumers should be presented with a choice of different browsers when booting a device for the first time.
Do we know if AI actually affected traffic to these sites? Even as someone who really likes AI, I've honestly found myself using Google/DDG <i>more</i> than before, just to find actual credible content on machine learning.