This Week in AI: Apple and Google Embrace Zero-Click Search

Google, the verb, is changing. Quick.

The signs are all around us: Traffic around the web is rapidly shifting away from traditional Google links, to a new thing called zero-click searches, "which happen when searchers get answers directly on Google's search page." Google's push for AI Summaries and, most recently, AI Mode, are either accelerating that trend or a response to it.

Now, Apple is weighing in. Eddy Cue, the iPhone maker's head of software and services, said during testimony in Google’s antitrust trial this week that searches through the company's default web browser have dropped for the first time last month. The reason: Artificial intelligence.

So, now Apple is "actively looking at" changing Safari to focus on AI.

Currently, Apple Intelligence features are a mix of features built by the company's in-house teams and those offered through a partnership by OpenAI's ChatGPT. Cue said he expects AI search providers, including OpenAI, will replace search engines like Google, at some point. Cue also confirmed Apple "had some discussions" with one of OpenAI's competitors, Perplexity.

While it's unclear where any of this will lead, it's clear that these changes in user behavior are substantial enough that it's shifting one of Apple's most important web browser features.

This is not all to say that Apple is dumping Google. Apple continues to reap billions of dollars from its partnership setting Google as the default engine on its iPhones, iPads and Mac computers. And, Bloomberg added, Apple expanded that partnership to include Google Lens as part of Apple's Visual Intelligence technology in its latest iPhones.

Search isn't the only thing AI is shaking up though...

OpenAI talking with FDA about using AI in drug evaluations

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has met with OpenAI to discuss how the agency could use AI to speed up drug approvals, according to a report from Wired. The news followed an FDA commissioner's post on X that the government body had "just completed" its "first AI-assisted scientific review for a product."

Though just a start, these moves mark the latest way AI is impacting the medical world. Studies have shown that AI, paired with a doctor, can detect cancer better than a doctor alone. AI also helped scientists to detect and study COVID-19, including through contact tracing and drug creation.

AI use isn't always so serious though...

Netflix using AI in new layout

Netflix announced a new look for its app on NBC's the Today show this week, marking the biggest changes in a decade. The new app will include blurbs for shows and movies, badges to highlight award-winning shows or alert viewers to upcoming seasons, and a new search bar powered by -- of course -- AI.

This tool, which was teased earlier this year, is designed to allow people to surf Netflix based on vibe.

"You say like, 'You know, I’d like something that’s uplifting, that’s a period piece, that involves these elements,' and then we can respond with titles that work for you in that moment," Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters said while demonstrating the new feature for the morning show.

Get your prompts ready. I'm thinking, "moody action thriller with twinges of comic relief that's set in space." Or maybe "I'm tired, my kids have been yelling at me all day, and I need something that's a good escape, but also isn't mind-numbingly dumb."

Speaking of entertainment tastemakers...

IBM says AI is creating jobs, while also eliminating them

IBM knows a thing or two about AI. The company's been advertising its AI technology for longer than some of you dear readers have been alive, after all. And now, the company's CEO says AI has replaced "hundreds of workers," but it's created new ones too.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said AI technology had replaced "a couple hundred human resources workers." But, the company has grown its army of programmers and salespeople.

The difference, Krishna said, appears to be that humans are still better at things that "face up or against other humans, as opposed to just doing rote process work."

Aside from Krishna's dismissiveness toward a critical part of his business, his comments do provide more nuance to the question of how AI will impact the workforce. Many studies suggest AI will impact wide swaths of the workforce, and it's already bolstered labor organizing in many industries, including high-profile strikes in Hollywood and the video game industry. It's also become the basis of some lawsuits by companies such as the New York Times, which is arguing in court that OpenAI stole its proprietary copyrighted work to build its technology. (OpenAI has argued that current copyright laws are outdated, and proposed a "text and data mining exception.")