As AI kills search traffic, Google launches Offerwall to boost publisher revenue

Is it only me who feels its incredibly unfair for publishers, that not only did big tech trained their LLMs on free content authored by these publishers, but it's also killing their future revenue. It's like stealing from someone and then making sure they never make money again.

Yes it's unfair. It's digital colonialism. What's sad is that other companies keep falling for the false narrative that big tech monopolies act as partners and not the blood sucking leeches they've become to represent.

Competition in the free market is not colonialism. The capitalistic marketplace is meant to involve disruption. That's the entire point: new companies come along and out-compete and out-innovate older companies and business models. The consumer wins. This is not the same as invading countries and subjugating the inhabitants, who have a human right to a peaceful life. No business in a capitalistic marketplace has a "right" to continue enjoying profits and resist innovation.

If this is the consumer winning I’d rather be losing. As far as I can tell, free market means let the monopolies control everything.

Literally the entire narrative right now among online business owners, big and small (influencers, creators, indie hackers, startup founders, etc.) is that this is a golden age for aspirational new entrants and entrepreneurs.

It's really not the reality. AI spam is diluting the voice of 'new entrants' and removing any traffic based revenue they may get.

All I can see AI doing is entrenching those large enough to integrate it into their offerings in a meaningful way, and sustain a significantly lower cost base.

I use copilot at $10/mo. Gpt4.1 costs $2/m in and $8/m out. I'd do that in a single day, easily. There is no way any product I try and make can compete with that while consuming any meaningful number of tokens.

I think the problem is your mindset. While you're coming up with reasons why you can't succeed, I know hundreds of people who are actually building things that are successful. I mean TypingMind.com is literally just a GPT wrapper built and maintained by a single guy, and it makes hundreds of thousands of dollars per month.

If I told you I dropped a million dollars in the Pacific Ocean, would you look for it? No. What if I buried it somewhere in California, would you search for it then? Still no. What if I told you it was somewhere in your home, would you search? Yes, and you would probably tear your house apart.

If you want to succeed you have to try, and it only makes sense to try if you believe that things are possible. It all starts there.