This is the script of my national network radio report yesterday on users abandoning Google services due to concerns about their AI policies. It also includes discussion of related AI issues. As always, there may have been minor wording variations from this script as I presented this report live on air.

- - -

Yeah, this is quite interesting and though it would be unwise to read too much into it at this point this seems to be yet another aspect of pushback against AI as firms like Google increasingly attempt to force users to use their Large Language Model generative AI systems whether those users want to or not. As Google has pushed more AI Overview results into searches and now has confusingly modified their main search page to try funnel users into their Gemini AI conversations -- where misinformation is rampant -- there are reports that significant numbers of Google users are moving to other platforms. These can be search engines that either don't have AI aspects or at least make it straightforward for users to avoid their search results being poisoned by AI hallucinations and other AI Slop.

One of the claims you'll frequently hear from LLM generative AI boosters and their various political supporters of those massive, grotesque, AI data centers is that if you stand in their way you will block progress toward new cancer cures and other medical breakthroughs and the like. But that's a smokescreen. The vast amount of this data center capacity is aimed not at machine learning types of AI useful for medical, weather, and other so-called Big Data analysis. Rather, the many hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on these data centers and related efforts to force their systems down users' throats are almost entirely about Large Language Model generative AI SLOP.

We're talking slop applications like creating sexualized and other deep fakes, automated phishing scams, misinformation-filled search query answers that starve source sites of views, agentic AI -- which I recommend you never use -- that can destroy your data and empty your wallet while the AI firms take no responsibility, AI chatbots that have reportedly urged users toward murder and suicide, cheating machines for kids in school, vibe coding systems that generate garbage code and create an excuse for mass tech layoffs -- and so on.

That's the reality of Big Tech LLM AI, and is what these horrific data centers tearing apart rural and other communities are mostly all about. Despite many politicians in both parties seemingly willing to cheerfully agree to whatever the Big Tech CEOs who control these AI firms want to do, the pushback from many communities and users -- in rural, urban, and suburban areas, is significant and rapidly growing.

It is important though to realize that we are really only at the beginning of these battles. For example, despite the impressive percentage increases in users we've seen at some Google competitors lately, in absolute terms these are still relatively low numbers and Google not only controls the vast majority of searches but is likely to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. Switching search and in particular affiliated services to another company -- like browsers, email, and more, can be a tough lift even for many tech-savvy users. So simply suggesting that users switch services probably isn't the best approach -- changes need to be required for services like Google's and those from the other giant AI firms, changes that will better serve society, not just those firms' bottom lines.

AI data centers can be environmental disasters for otherwise beautiful, unspoiled rural areas. The percentage of students found to be cheating using AI has reportedly gone through the roof and professors are giving out more F grades as a result. AI misinformation is contaminating fact-based knowledge causing ever more confusion and damage. Google just announced privacy policy changes seemingly designed to use even more of your personal data for training Google AI without your giving them any specific new permission to do so.

The EU will reportedly be requiring Google to give users and sites ways to opt-out of some AI aspects, but it's unclear if the U.S. will ever get the same controls, or how effective they'd actually be and what the consequences of using them would be.

It's all frankly an enormous mess in ways that we've never before seen in the history of technology, beginning with those first stone knives of our ancient ancestors long ago. The Big Tech CEOs seem to feel that they own us, and again there seem to be politicians in both parties who are more than happy to endorse that view. The ultimate responsibility is of course our own. We can elect politicians who could -- if they so choose -- pass the kinds of laws and regulations that are already desperately needed to reign in AI abuses, and are becoming more crucial and necessary every day. If we fail to elect politicians who will actually do this, then that's on us, and those billionaire CEOs will indeed be gleefully chuckling at our expense, watching as WE all get the proverbial AI shaft.

- - -

L

#google #ai #llm