As the web expanded, however, access costs were contested.
Although consumers now search Google for free, payment is required to download certain articles and books. Many consumers still rely on libraries – while libraries themselves struggle with the rising costs of purchasing material to provide to the public for free.
What will the next 25 years bring?
Google has expanded far beyond Search. Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Pixel devices and other services show Google’s reach is vast.
With the introduction of AI tools, including Google’s Bard and the recently announced Gemini (a direct competitor to ChatGPT), Google is set to revolutionise search once again.
As Google continues to roll generative AI capabilities into Search, it will become common to read a quick information summary at the top of the results page, rather than dig for information yourself. A key challenge will be ensuring people don’t become complacent to the point that they blindly trust the generated outputs.
Fact-checking against original sources will remain as important as ever. After all, we have seen generative AI tools such as ChatGPT make headlines due to “hallucinations” and misinformation.
If inaccurate or incomplete search summaries aren’t revised, or are further paraphrased and presented without source material, the misinformation problem will only get worse.
Moreover, even if AI tools revolutionise search, they may fail to revolutionise access. As the AI industry grows, we’re seeing a shift towards content only being accessible for a fee, or through paid subscriptions.
The rise of AI provides an opportunity to revisit the tensions between public access and increasingly powerful commercial entities.
Mark Sanderson is Professor of Information Retrieval at RMIT University. Julian Thomas is Distinguished Professor of Media and Communications and Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society at RMIT University, while Kieran Hegarty is Research Fellow (Automated Decision-Making Systems); and Lisa M Given is Professor of Information Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform at the same institute.
This commentary first appeared in The Conversation.
