I’m not alone.
I have a love/hate relationship with AI. Hate might be too strong a word — let’s just say I have concerns. And some of those concerns relate to whether sites like Ask Leo! will survive.
AI is an existential threat. Maybe someday for humanity, I don’t know; what I do know is that the threat is real and current for websites you probably rely on for content… like answers to your technical questions.
We’re losing our reason to exist.
The threat of AI
AI is changing the internet. Instead of sending people to sites like Ask Leo!, search engines and chatbots give instant answers, bypassing site visits and cutting site revenue. Survival? Well, right now it means video, community, and direct support from readers. The future is very uncertain and constantly evolving.
Traffic is down
I talked about this a few months ago. The original business model of Ask Leo! (and many other sites across many different topic areas) was this:
- Write quality content.
- Write it in such a way that search engines pick it up (aka “SEO” or Search Engine Optimization).
- Have the search engines present links to that content when people search for related topics.
- Hope people click through to the site to get their answer.
- Have advertising alongside the content on the site to generate revenue.
- Profit?
AI summaries in search engines and AI chatbots have basically tanked that model in the last 24 months. They no longer present prominent links for people to click on, but instead present summaries and answers. People do not need to click through and visit my site.
Fewer visits mean lower ad revenue. In my case, it was bad enough that I removed all third-party advertising from the site. There was no point in continuing to annoy the folks who made it here with ads that weren’t helping support the site.
Help keep it going by becoming a Patron.
Related
Changes for Ask Leo!
Changes are coming to Ask Leo!, including the removal of outside ads. I’ll explain why this (very) scary step is necessary, how search engines and AI are changing the game, what it means for the future of the site, and how you can help.#182543
Yet website hits are up
Ironically, I recently had to increase the size of the askleo.com web server1 because it was getting pounded with page requests.
Not from real visitors, of course. There are two culprits at play.
Search engine spiders. Even though they’re not presenting links as much, they continue to scan the site for updated and new content. How they use that information varies based on the search engine involved. Sometimes they present links to content relevant to what people are searching for, like the old days. More often, though, they use the content they find on my and related sites to generate the summaries and answers they present.
AI spiders. There are many AIs out there right now, and they’re all crawling the web, slurping up content to train their large language models or provide real-time information when people ask questions of AIs. It’s the same model as search engine summaries, though more extensive and complete. And while there are often references to source material, there’s little incentive for people to click through.
So, yeah, I had to get a bigger (read: more expensive) server to feed my content to the various spiders and bots that are scanning the web.
Why let them?
The most obvious question is: why let them? There are various mechanisms I could use to prevent bots from accessing the content on my site. It’s one reason you’re seeing more “Are you human?” tests as you navigate other sites on the web yourself.
Website owners like me face two scenarios.
- Block the bots and know that AI and search engines will not use my content, will never reference or mention me, and will never send people my way.
- Allow the bots and hope that AI and search engines will use my content in such a way that people get the answers they need, and hopefully, a few of them will click through or check a reference and find my site.
It’s not a great choice.
And that’s why I say the fundamental model of publishing useful information online may be dying. What’s my incentive (other than altruism) to keep publishing? Particularly if I have to spend still more money to keep the server from being overwhelmed by bots?
What’s the incentive for anyone to continue to create useful content online?
Related
How I Use AI at Ask Leo!
I write all my own articles, but I often use AI as a tool along the way. I'll walk through a recent example.#168449
Irony: I use AI myself
I’ve written about this before as well: I use AI as a tool more or less constantly. I don’t have it write content for me (hence the “Written by a real human” at the top of every page), but I use it to generate eye-catching images, prompt me to dig deeper into ideas, and make generating these articles easier.
And I use AI when searching for answers myself. I try to click through to references presented (I mostly use Perplexity, which is great about including references to its source material), but I don’t always. Sometimes the AI-generated answer really is all I need.
I’m not complaining that the current state of affairs is wrong, nor am I saying it’s right.
It is what it is, and it’s having an impact.
And that impact is going to get bigger.
AI-generated content
Here’s a scary concept:
The quantity of AI-generated articles has surpassed the quantity of human-written articles being published on the web.
– More Articles Are Now Created by AI Than Humans – graphite.io (an SEO/AEO company)
There are questions about whether real people see those articles and whether they show up in search engine results or are used by AI. (AI being trained on AI-generated content is another, separate, scary concept.)
The fact is, it’s happening.
And as some have commented, you are currently seeing the worst AI we will have going forward. AI is only going to get better.
Does it matter where the answer comes from?
This is like my customer support position of some years ago: if someone understands my problem, and I can understand their answer, and their answer actually resolves my problem, I don’t care who or where they are.
Understandability and accuracy matter. If those fail, then it’s a bad customer service experience. I think we’ve all experienced that at one time or another.
Pragmatically, is AI different? If it gets you the answer you need, does it matter that it’s AI-generated?
To be sure, there are many issues in the background. With human customer support, it’s about jobs and working conditions and so on. With AI, it’s about where those answers ultimately came from.
But as a user, when you need an answer, are you going to turn down the right answer because it came from someone’s idea of the wrong place?
Again, I don’t know.
Written content today. Tomorrow?
Honestly, what’s saving Ask Leo! today is video. Every written article has a video posted on YouTube where I cover the same topic. If there’s something to demonstrate, I demonstrate; otherwise, I discuss (not “narrate”) the article at hand.
Including this one. By the time you read this, there’ll be a video of me talking about the issue on camera.
AI will probably be able to meet or surpass the quality of much written content in the not-too-distant future. I’ll keep writing, and I’ll keep pointing out that I’m human, but I know it’s a losing battle.
The same will happen with video someday. There’s some amazing AI video being generated right now, but it’s not on a par with videos created by real people discussing and demonstrating topics in the tech space. Yes, AI is being used as a tool — for example, someone whose English skills are not up to par can use AI to transform their voice into something more understandable. But it’s still human-generated content.
If you see me on camera, that’s me.
But I’m not sure how long that’ll last. I’ll say we’re good for a few years while AI catches up to the current state of human how-to and Q&A video creation, but catch up it will.
I’m not sure what happens then.
Related
8 Ways AI Can Help You Every Day
Discover how AI can actually make your life easier. From summarizing long articles to rewriting tricky text, answering vague questions, or even helping you write better emails — these eight real-world examples show how tools like ChatGPT, CoPilot, and Perplexity can save time and boost confidence every day.#179862
The Future
I’m not the only one facing this situation. I’m not even the first. Maybe the topic of technology is a little harder for AI to replicate. We’re certainly seeing AI in other spaces further down its evolutionary path than we see in tech.
Creators are responding in several different ways.
Giving up. I hope not to do this, or at least not for a very long time. But someday the incentives and revenue we rely on are likely to disappear. I’m not sure when or what this will look like for me.
Exploring alternate presentations. This is what I’m leaning into with YouTube and my online course creation. AI’s not there yet, so it’s very much worth my time and investment.
Building community. This is what I see happening a lot outside the tech space. It’s all about building direct access to a resource you trust. Newsletters, Substacks (and equivalent), patronage, and members-only access are all built on one-to-one relationships, bypassing all the things AI is competing on. It’s why I’ve been a little more vocal about my own patronage options.
Something else? Many creators and entrepreneurs continue to explore different ways to do what they do in a way that competes with AI less or complements it more. I don’t know what this looks like, but again, it’s something I’m keeping an eye on.
It’s not just about me
I’ve used myself as an example throughout this essay because I know my issues and you know what I do.
I am extremely privileged that while Ask Leo! is absolutely a business with a bottom line, paying me a salary and also paying three assistants, I won’t lose my home or go hungry if it goes away. (Same with my assistants, I believe.)
The same is not true for other online creators. Many are terrified to see their livelihoods threatened by the changing landscape. Some may adapt, some may figure out how to make it work, some may pivot, and others may end up giving up on a dream they’ve invested much of their lives in.
Do this
This is not an anti-AI screed, and I’m most certainly not saying AI is evil or that you shouldn’t use it. It’s a tool, and a very useful one. It’s just that it’s having a dramatic impact on various industries, including my own.
With that in mind, here’s what you can do.
- Click through to references. You should check AI’s veracity anyway, since it’s still hallucinating from time to time.
- Consider supporting individual creators you appreciate. That could be as simple (and cheap) as a free newsletter subscription, or you could go further with paid subscriptions and patronage.
- Share the creators you appreciate with others. Word-of-mouth (or “word of mouse”, as one colleague put it years ago) is very real and very powerful. Particularly in the age of AI, recommendations from real people like you carry more weight than they ever did.
And even though it’d be easy to read everything above as gloom and doom, I remain excited by what the future holds. Truly.
Change is always challenging; it’s about finding how best to participate in what is to come.
HI Leo,
I use AI to generate letters or change medical jargon into English. But you answer questions that are not asked, at least by me, because I don’t know enough to ask. Can AI read my mind like you sometimes do? I’m 81 and have been using PCs for 45 years, so I know a little of how things work and then you come along with an article that shows me how to be even better. You generate that, not AI. So people who are curious and always looking to be better need guys like you who can speak at their level of understanding and suggest better and faster ways to solve problems. I never even saw that stupid windows key until I read your articles on their use. Now I can’t live without those shortcuts. You showed me…and I never asked, because I didn’t know enough to ask. Don’t sell yourself short.
Hi Leo, I’m with you all the way. I tend to ignore these AI generated answers to my search queries (mainly technical) as I don’t trust them, I prefer to go to websites I know. But even these might now be AI generated, though hopefully reviewed before posting. That’s fine for people that understand how it works, but there vast majority of users out there just take the first answer they’re presented with and don’t know how to distinguish between good and bad answers. I think this whole AI thing is adding to the dumbing down that’s been happening for a while. Yes, it can be a great tool of used wisely – but I worry about our capability to think for ourselves.
Good Article and timing. A friend I know is a new college professor and is having problems (the entire school faculty as well) with students abusing AI to do their coursework. As this college is taught online, there isn’t the recourse to have students write material in person, as a High School teacher I know does – Hand written essays….
It does seem that critical thought, and even basic math skills are out the window these days. I’ve had multiple instances where when paying cash and the bill may be and odd amount, say six dollars 25 cents, I’ll turn over a twenty and one dollar and a quarter. And have the cashier politely inform me that I’ve overpaid and that the twenty will cover everything. They don’t seem to grasp that a 10 and a 5 would provide exact change…
Hrrumph. These kids these days! It’s been an interesting ride. I’ll be curious what the internet looks like in five years.
Indeed I have also found AI generated search results useful, at times useful enough that I had no reason to check the underlying sites. Today, AI is relying on content that has been (mostly) created by humans. If the current state of affairs discourages humans from creating useful content, then where does that leave us. Certainly AI will be less useful, it will have less to feed on. It will have killed the geese laying the golden eggs.
I’m surprised that your volume has been so impacted by AI. I have always accessed your web page, specifically the recent posts, to see what I can learn. It has been much appreciated for many years. With all due respect, I also often do searches for computer related technical questions but rarely get hits on your web site, so again I am perplexed by the recent loss of volume related to AI summaries. .