OpenAI applies the same strategy, but they’re using their equity to buy compute that is critical to improving their core technology. It’s circular, but more like a flywheel and less like a merry-go-round. I have some faith it could go another way.
1) Google Search is now 99% crap that nobody wants, and even the AI answers are largely crap,
2) I believe somebody is going to eventually realize that search engines are stupid and improve on them. The whole idea of a single text box where you type some words and the search engine reads your mind to figure out the one thing you wanted, and then gives you one generic answer, is crap. We've just been blind to this because we don't see any other answer to realize we've been getting crap.
If I type in "when did MMS come out", Google will tell me when the candy product M&M's came out. But I wanted to know when the Multimedia Messaging Service was released. At some point somebody is going to realize that you can't actually tell what the hell the person wants from these simple queries alone. The computer needs to ask you questions to narrow down the field. That's sometimes what happens in ChatGPT, but it can be greatly improved with simple buttons/drop-downs/filters/etc. I think it'll also be improved by more dynamic and continuous voice input for context. (I notice Google Search now has audio input; I wonder if that came in after ChatGPT? Wayback Machine shows it starting in mid-2024) When they eventually implement all this, and people realize it's a million times better than what Google has, then Google will be playing catch-up.