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The multibillion-dollar advertising model that has underpinned the internet economy could \u201cfall apart\u201d due to the rise of generative artificial intelligence, according to the inventor of the World Wide Web.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the FT Future of AI Summit in London on Wednesday, Sir Tim Berners-Lee warned that large language models (LLMs) may eventually replace humans in consuming the internet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf web pages are all read by LLMs, then people ask the LLM for the data and the LLM just produces the result, the whole ad-based business model of the web starts to fall apart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This system threatens the collapse of the decades-long advertising-based model that has seen the likes of Google and Meta become multitrillion-dollar businesses on the back of powerful ad networks.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s domination of online search is already under threat for the first time in a generation since OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022. <\/p>\n
Google has responded by launching \u201cAI mode\u201d in its search bar, browser and apps, allowing users to receive conversational answers to questions generated by chatbots instead of a list of blue links \u2014 a move that further pushes users away from online advertising.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the web relies on advertising,\u201d Berners-Lee added. \u201cAdvertising relies on people actually reading web pages\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. if they all assume that a human being is reading the webpage, but the LLM is reading it and the human is not, then we have a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
The father of the World Wide Web, who hopes AI<\/a> will allow society to press a \u201creset button\u201d on the internet, acknowledged that some people had been driven \u201ccrazy\u201d by aggressive ad targeting amid concerns certain applications had been \u201clistening to their every word\u201d. <\/p>\n He added that \u201cwe need to replace [the model] with something else.\u201d<\/p>\n As yet, however, there are few signs of the web-based ad model collapsing. Last week, Google\u2019s parent Alphabet<\/a> posted a record $100bn in quarterly revenue, with chief executive Sundar Pichai saying its business was being boosted by growing demand at its cloud computing arm.<\/p>\n
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