Assuming that, like ChatGPT, the model runs on Google's servers doesn't this vastly increase the cost to Google of offering Chrome for free? Now you have to provide AI compute time to every 4chan poster and forum warrior.
The economics of AI still seems nuts to me. Feels like another bait and switch in the making when all these "free" services need to start showing some revenue.
It's a direct evolution of the search paradigm. You go from entering a few keywords roughly related to what you want and then clicking on ads to continue the search, to having a short conversation with the AI honing in precisely what you need and then having the AI complete the transaction or even generate the content for you, optionally with a transaction attached.
The direct interactions with AI increase the fidelity of the customer model of you that Google has and uses to optimize sales to you for it's customers.
Even further, the most common source of inspiration for purchases is the behavior of other people. If the AI can sufficiently emulate humans and ingratiate itself enough to you then it can directly influence your behavior just by suggesting that it would make certain decisions in your place or that others have already.
This is actually not far removed from the existing situation, just the next level of technological capability.
By actually generating responses for you, it starts training you to allow it to make decisions on your behalf. This may readily extend into purchase decisions.
The economics of AI still seems nuts to me. Feels like another bait and switch in the making when all these "free" services need to start showing some revenue.