内容来源：https://www.wired.com/story/even-if-you-hate-ai-you-will-use-google-ai-search/

内容总结：

谷歌宣布全面转型：搜索进入AI时代，传统“十条蓝色链接”将成历史

在近日举行的谷歌I/O开发者大会上，谷歌搜索负责人丽兹·里德（Liz Reid）正式宣告了一场历时数年的“静默革命”达到顶峰：传统意义上的网页搜索已被官方降级，取而代之的是基于其AI大模型Gemini的智能搜索。这场变革标志着谷歌自2009年起每周在“瓦加杜古”会议室举行的经典搜索质量会议所代表的时代，彻底成为历史。

告别“蓝色链接”，拥抱AI对话

17年前，在谷歌山景城总部，工程师们还围坐在桌边探讨如何优化关键词匹配、提升“十条蓝色链接”的排序准确性。如今，里德在主题演讲中宣布，谷歌推出了自公司成立以来对搜索框最重大的改变。用户不再输入简单的“查询词”，而是直接与Gemini进行开放式对话。AI不仅会整合用户个人信息（谷歌掌握的海量数据），还能生成定制化的回答，甚至即兴创建包含图表、要点和动画的专属迷你页面。这意味着搜索框从“网络入口”变成了“AI助手召唤台”。

AI模式使用量激增，传统网站遭“釜底抽薪”

谷歌数据显示，目前每月已有超过10亿用户使用AI模式进行搜索，该模式的查询量每季度翻一番。公司高管坦言，这个曾被命名为“AI概览”的功能，如今已深度嵌入搜索核心。虽然里德辩称“仍有用户会点击链接”，但她拒绝提供具体点击率数据。业界担忧，这种即时生成答案的模式，让那些提供原创内容的新闻网站和创作者面临灭顶之灾——AI直接消化了宇宙学家、科学作家和视觉艺术家的劳动成果，却几乎不给他们带来流量或署名。

争议与未来：“黑匣子”里的搜索质量

尽管AI搜索能更高效地处理复杂需求（如查找特定文章或解释科学概念），但幻觉和错误问题依然存在。里德承认技术“远非完美”，但坚称错误率已大幅下降。当被问及是否还保留当年的“搜索质量人工评审”时，她表示相关会议已分散至多个部门，但“最终仍需要人类判断”。谷歌高管强调，AI搜索不仅是不可避免的趋势，而且可能让反AI的群体也“真香”——因为公司的语音助手甚至T恤口号都写着：“问我任何问题”。

从组织信息到直接提供答案，谷歌正在重塑互联网的底层规则。然而，当搜索不再将用户引向广阔的万维网，而是将一切打包在AI的“黑匣子”里时，那个曾经开放的互联网生态还能否存续，正成为这场科技革命中最尖锐的拷问。

中文翻译：

我初次参加谷歌山景城园区瓦加杜古会议室那场标志性的每周搜索质量会议，已是17年前的事了。那个周四的早晨，大约三十多位工程师、产品经理和高管围坐在桌前或席地而坐，讨论为何某些搜索查询或类别未能呈现完美结果，并提出修正建议。2010年，这些会议促使谷歌对其搜索算法进行了550处修改——这个数字在当时看来颇为惊人。

这段记忆如今恍如隔世。在本周的谷歌I/O开发者大会上，一位主题演讲者——搜索业务负责人丽兹·里德——正式将传统搜索降级至近乎湮没。这是两年前开启进程的延续，当时谷歌推出了"AI概览"，这些摘要置于搜索结果页面顶部，犹如悬垂在著名的"十条蓝色链接"之上。那时这些链接已遭弱化，以至于最相关的结果往往被聚合网站、垃圾信息以及谷歌自家的购物结果和地图所淹没。如今，在里德称为公司史上搜索框最重大变革中，用户直接与最新版谷歌Gemini对话。就连"查询"一词也显得过时，因为人类输入成了AI协作的对话起点。这一过程还可纳入谷歌了解你的个人信息——这信息量可能相当可观。对某个查询的回复可能是一份定制化呈现，或许由在数字小径上搜寻信息的AI代理强化。转型已然完成。谷歌在台上直言不讳："谷歌搜索即AI搜索。"

曾经的搜索框是通往网络的门户。这个新的"智能"框则是邀请用户订购由Gemini驱动的定制化查询回复，有时甚至即时生成包含图表、要点甚至动画的专属迷你出版物。谷歌曾以解读隐晦搜索词、洞察用户意图而自豪。如今它鼓励搜索者与Gemini展开一场对话式连续提问。为强调这一变化，谷歌参会代表身着印有"随便问"字样的T恤，这正呼应了Gemini的提示语。与计算机版本一样，如果你向这些微笑的助手问路，得到的答案并不会导向某个网站的点击。

我们当下的数字生活正处在一个令人不安的转折点。AI似乎正驱动着每一种商业模式，而像谷歌这样的巨头正将AI编织进所有产品与运营中。与此同时，随着这种强大而可怕的技术悄然渗透进我们的生活，抵制甚至反感情绪也在上升。只需听听毕业典礼演讲嘉宾提及AI时响起的嘘声便可知晓。但在谷歌看来，AI搜索——如果你仍愿如此称呼——是一种必然趋势，连讨厌AI的人最终也会接受。

我曾在2024年AI概览推出时对其避之不及。如今我承认，概览功能——以及它鼓励你使用的更深入的"AI模式"——在许多事情上确实更胜一筹，无论是查查《周六夜现场》有没有新一集，了解什么是"代理型捆绑"，还是查找某个链接。当我搜索自己那篇描述瓦加杜古会议的文章时，蓝色链接几乎毫无用处。但当我用平实的语言解释我在找什么时，我立刻找到了。

它确实有效。谷歌声称每月有超过十亿用户使用AI模式搜索——这是谷歌网站上一个独立的选项卡，链接的地位更加边缘化。AI模式查询量每季度翻一番。

主题演讲后，我与丽兹·里德交谈并直接问她：她如何定义搜索？在惊愕地停顿后，她援引了谷歌的使命："你是否能真正让信息不仅被整理有序，而且对人们真正有用、触手可及？"

最初的谷歌当然假设，实现这一使命的关键在于一个繁荣开放的网络。根据里德的主题演讲，谷歌每天抓取数十亿个网页——但现在目的已变为收集事实和洞见，为其个性化回复服务。

在主题演讲中，谷歌展示了搜索查询如何派遣一支AI代理舰队，即时创建一种个性化网站。"我们说的是动态布局、交互式小部件、完全为你量身定制的完整体验，"搜索副总裁罗比·斯坦说。为回答关于黑洞的查询，AI代理可能会生成一幅交互式图表，解释其工作原理。但信息必须有来源。其原材料是宇宙学家、科学作家和视觉艺术家的辛勤工作，这些人却难以获得署名或曝光。这些类型的创作者——以及承载其作品的网站——似乎成了这一转型中的输家。

不出所料，里德反驳了AI搜索是对传统网络的一次"釜底抽薪"的说法。"有些人会跳过AI回复直接点击链接，"她坚持道。"通常人们会点击AI视图，然后点击其中的链接。"我询问实际这样做的用户有多少的相关指标；里德表示谷歌未分享该数据。

她指出，一些网站会遭受冲击——那些提供AI代理轻易就能复制的泛泛内容的底层网站。但她声称，有原创声音和独家报道或研究内容仍会找到受众。（真的吗？去跟那些已被AI概览摧毁的新闻网站说说看吧。）"我们也在以新的方式学习如何判断哪些网页内容具有相关性，"她说，并声称谷歌正致力于将用户引向那些拥有"一手视角"的网站。我热切期待那波流量。

当然，获取单一AI生成答案的另一个问题是，与其他AI模型一样，Gemini可能出错，甚至无中生有。"这项技术当然远非完美，"里德承认，并声称错误和捏造已不如以前普遍。

我向里德提出的最后一个问题是，谷歌是否仍举行像我在2009年参加过的那种搜索质量会议。已在谷歌工作二十余年的里德表示，这些会议现已分散到多个会议中，但目标相同。"归根结底，仍有人的判断在其中，"她告诉我。无论你多么讨厌AI，你很可能还是会使用它。里德表示，总体搜索量处于历史最高水平。

英文来源：

It's been 17 years since I sat in on the iconic weekly search quality meeting in the Ouagadougou conference room at Google’s Mountain View campus. That Thursday morning, around three dozen engineers, product managers, and executives sat at a table or sprawled on the floor to discuss why certain search queries or categories didn’t yield a perfect result and to suggest fixes. In 2010 those meetings led Google to make 550 changes to its search algorithm, a number that seemed impressive at the time.
That memory seems like a tintype. At Google’s I/O developer conference this week, a keynote speaker—head of search Liz Reid—officially down-ranked good old-fashioned search to virtual oblivion. This was a continuation of a process that began two years ago, when Google introduced “AI Overview,” its summaries that sit at the top of its search results page and literally lurk over the famous “10 blue links.” By then those links had already been degraded, so that all too often the most relevant ones were buried beneath aggregators, spam, and Google’s own shopping results and maps. Now, in what Reid described as the most significant change to the search box in the company’s history, users are in direct communication with the latest version of Google’s Gemini. Even the term “query” seems outdated, as human inputs are conversation starters for the AI to collaborate. The process can also incorporate personal information Google knows about you, which can be a lot. The answer to a query could be a bespoke presentation, maybe bolstered by AI agents that forage digital backroads to root out information. The transformation is complete. Onstage, Google said it out loud: “Google Search is AI Search.”
The search box used to be a portal to the web. The new “intelligent” box is an invitation to order up a Gemini-powered, customized response to a user’s queries, sometimes even creating on the fly a bespoke mini-publication with charts, bullet points, and even animations. Google used to pride itself on interpreting cryptic search terms to divine user intent. Now it encourages searchers to engage with Gemini in a conversational prompt-a-thon. To emphasize the change, Google representatives at the conference wore T-shirts saying “Ask Me Anything,” reflecting the prompt that Gemini offers. Just as with the computerized version, if you asked for directions from these smiling aides, the answer did not result in a click to a website.
Our digital life these days is perched at an uncomfortable transition point. AI seems to be driving every business model, and giants like Google are weaving AI into all their products and operations. At the same time, there’s rising resistance and even disgust as this powerful and scary technology worms its way into our lives. Just note the boos when commencement speakers mention AI. But as Google sees it, AI search—if you still want to call it that—is an inevitability that even AI haters will embrace.
I was among those who recoiled at the introduction of AI Overview in 2024. Now I acknowledge that Overview—and the deeper “AI Mode” that it encourages you to use—is simply better for many things, whether finding out if Saturday Night Live has a new episode, getting an explanation of an agentic harness, or even finding a link. When I searched for my WIRED article where I described the meeting in the Ouagadougou, the blue links were less than useful. But when I explained in plain language what I was looking for, I found it immediately.
So it’s working. Google claims that more than a billion people a month are searching with AI Mode, a separate tab on Google’s website where links are even more peripheral. AI Mode queries are doubling every quarter.
I spoke to Liz Reid after the keynote and asked her directly: How is she defining search? After a startled pause, she invokes Google’s mission: “Can you truly make information not just organized, but really useful and accessible to people?”
The original Google, of course, assumed that the key to that mission was a thriving and open web. According to Reid’s keynote speech, Google scrapes billions of web pages every day—but now the point is to gather facts and insights for its personalized responses.
In the keynote presentation, Google showed how a search query can dispatch an armada of AI agents to create a kind of personalized website on the fly. “We’re talking dynamic layouts, interactive widgets, entire experiences created just for you,” said search VP Robby Stein. To answer a query on black holes, AI agents might whip up an interactive graphic explaining how they work. But information has to come from somewhere. The raw material for that was the hard work of cosmologists, science writers, and visual artists, none of whom are easily credited or surfaced. These types of creators—and the web sites that hold their work—seem to be the losers in this transition.
Not surprisingly, Reid disputes the theory that AI search is a giant rug-pull for the traditional web. “Some people will skip over the AI response and go to links,” she insists. “Oftentimes people will click on the AI view, and then click on the links within.” I asked for metrics on how many people actually do that; Reid says Google doesn’t share that data.
Some websites will suffer, she says—those bottom feeders that offer generic content that an AI agent can easily duplicate. But she claims that original voices and uniquely reported or researched content will still find an audience. (Really? Tell that to news sites already devastated by AI Overviews.) “We’re also learning in new ways how to think about what web content is relevant,” she says, claiming that Google is at work sending users to those with “firsthand perspectives.” I eagerly await that traffic.
Of course, another problem with getting a single AI-generated answer is that, like other AI models, Gemini can be wrong, or even make stuff up. “The technology is certainly not perfect by any stretch,” Reid concedes, claiming that the errors and fabrications aren’t as prevalent as before,
My final question to Reid was whether Google still holds search quality meetings like the one I attended in 2009. Reid, who has been at Google for more than two decades, says that they’re now spread out over several meetings, but the goal is the same. “At the end of the day, there’s still a human judgment,” she told me. And no matter how much you hate AI, you’ll probably use it. Overall searches, says Reid, are at a record high.
This is an edition of Steven Levy’s Backchannel newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.