Google Search's new AI era, Meta tests Reddit competitor + one-person AI company raises billions

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[00:00:00]Coming up today on Many Tech Scrolls, Google overhauls the search bar after 25 years. Facebook is coming for Reddit and the AI slop company that raised millions of dollars. Hey everyone and welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.

[00:00:21]My name is Annabelle and I'm your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll host and also the deputy editor of Australian youth digital media brand Centennial World.

[00:00:29]Welcome back to Mini Techch Scroll for another Wednesday. Before we get into today's episode, I need to ask the audience if any of you are watching Euphoria because this week's episode truly ended me. Like, I don't know why I'm still watching this show and I need to know what the audience thinks because I am struggling. Honestly, if it wasn't the finale next week, I would not keep watching. Okay, and before we get into the stories, please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. And feel free to check out our Patreon for more behindthe-scenes parasocial content.

[00:01:02]Lauren is actually recording a Patreon right after this, so keep a lookout.

[00:01:06]Okay, the first story for today is that we need to talk about how Google search is having a complete overhaul. So, this news actually broke last week, but it was after I had prepared and recorded the podcast. So, I thought I would save it until this week so I could also include some of the reactions to it. So, some of the biggest changes are coming to the Google search bar since 2001. At Google IO, the annual developer conference, it was announced that Google is leaning further into AI, which is honestly not really a surprise, but we will essentially be saying goodbye to searching through the blue links and websites that best match a search query when we search on Google, which is obviously what we are all used to by this point. So, there will be three main changes. The first is that it will essentially normalize searching through AI mode. This comes off the back of Google launching AI mode last year in March, which has since quote surpassed 1 billion monthly users with queries more than doubling every quarter since launch. According to Google's blog, this has been a major win for Google because after OpenAI released ChatgBT in 2022, there were so many concerns that AI startups would disrupt Google's dominance in search and clearly it hasn't. In saying that, Google is taking some cues from AI chat bots by announcing the intelligence search box, which is designed to be more quote unquote intuitive and make it easier to flow into a conversational back and forth with AI mode when you are searching. And I will say that these changes haven't necessarily been smooth sailing so far. Earlier this week, I'm sure you guys may have seen some people talking about it online. There was a glitch within Google's AI search that caused the engine to misinterpret the word disregard as a system command. It essentially went on to display the message quote unquote understood message disregarded instead of showing the dictionary definition. So things are not going so smoothly as of right now. The next change is how AI will be involved in search. So, Google also announced that we will be entering the era of AI agents. I know we kind of talk about AI agents here and there, but as a reminder, an AI agent is a system or program that will autonomously perform tasks instead of a user. So, that will involve both reasoning and actioning.

[00:03:30]With that, Google is introducing Gemini Spark, which is an always on 24/7 personal AI agent. It will operate in the background aiming to keep users up to date with anything they deem as relevant. As the blog post reads, quote, "Our agent will intelligently look across everything on the web, like blogs, news sites, and social posts, plus our freshest data. It will send you an intelligent synthesized update with the ability to take action. So, if you're apartment hunting, you can brain dump all of the exact requirements you're looking for, and your agent will continuously scan for you, notifying you when listings meet your needs." Another example that Google offered in the blog because I do feel like it is easier to conceptualize this through examples is about how agents will operate when it comes to booking. So the blog post shared that you can basically ask Google to call a business on your behalf. And honestly that sounds insane, but as a Gen Zed who hates phone calls, I kind of rate that. But also, I acknowledge that this is just a form of like optimizing what may just be like important human interaction and is probably unnecessary.

[00:04:37]These are obviously massive changes though because this is us kind of starting to see Google become increasingly personalized. Like obviously social media has been moving in this direction for a while now. But when you think about Google search, it has remained relatively consistent no matter how you use the internet, your interests or like personal preferences.

[00:04:57]When a user searches something up, there will be consistent and validated information that pops up no matter the political standpoint. This, as far as I understand, will change to some degree with these updates because it will be relying on personalized information and connecting your apps like Gmail, Google Photos, and Calendar to the whole search process. Obviously, objective information will remain the same, but it is something to consider when you are searching something that is more subjective. The last change worth noting is how Google is introducing agentic coding. So Google explains this as kind of mini apps for users where basically agents will have the capability to create tools for users for repeated tasks or searches. This is another example that the blog gives. Quote, often you aren't asking questions. You have an ongoing task you find yourself searching for over and over like planning a wedding or managing a home move. Search can go a step further, building you custom dashboards or trackers that you can continue to come back to and make progress on, and this will reportedly be rolling out over the next few months. It's safe to say that these changes will have widespread impact, especially when you consider how Google pretty much dominates search and information gathering online. From the perspective of digital media/publishers, this is obviously ominous because it really is the final nail in the coffin as far as traffic from Google goes. This has obviously been an issue for some time now with Google directing less and less traffic to websites because of Gemini and other AI models. And this has been a problem for businesses that relied on programmatic ads and things like that. In response to this, I have seen reporting from Google's perspective contending that there will still be traffic between search and websites.

[00:06:46]They claim that the difference will be quality over quantity. So instead of getting millions of visitors on a website, they will get less traffic but more genuinely interested consumers. And to me, I think that shows how Google views the internet at this stage where it's all about taking action, making purchases as opposed to information gathering and seeking. And I will say the decreased emphasis on kind of information seeking independently where it's being allocated to AI agents does worry me a little bit for the future of media literacy and discernment online. I was looking into the responses towards these changes and it does seem like many social media users are not happy, which honestly is not really a surprise. On Reddit, I've seen a whole bunch of users deciding to switch to other browsers to try and get away from Google with Duck.

[00:07:37]Go, which is an example I've discussed before being one that is one of the most frequently mentioned. And like I said, this isn't really surprising because there has been growing discourse among tech circles online recently, particularly how among youth consumers, they are less and less interested in AI.

[00:07:55]And this has really picked up ever since the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was recently booed when he gave a university commencement speech, which I feel like has been hard to escape online recently.

[00:08:06]In a similar vein, I've also recently seen the announcement of the AI resist List, which is build as quote, a new project that documents examples of resistance to the AI empires around the world, which I think is just another example of this sentiment bubbling. I'm definitely curious to hear your thoughts because I do understand how some of these updates can streamline slash optimize the search and information gathering experience for the user. I'm just not sure that that's always a good thing. Like when you're doing research, sometimes falling down like a research hole is so important to figuring out what you want to learn and talk about.

[00:08:45]And these updates are not necessarily facilitated to kind of let that happen.

[00:08:50]And I thought how Ryan Brick put it in a recent edition of garbage day kind of epitomize this point perfectly. quote, "For the hobbyists and civil organizations and activists and education resources and the myriad of eccentric internet weirdos out there, traffic, even unmonetized, makes it all feel worth it. If Google replaces search with AI, that entire virtuous circle breaks down. Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic are convinced that chat interfaces are the new passport to the web. The way a Gmail address, a Facebook account, or an Apple ID was in the 2010s. Some many of these companies will likely not survive the inevitable market contraction around AI. But we have enough proof now to definitively say that they are willing to cannibalize their own companies and their role in maintaining core features of the internet to chase their dreams of AI domination. Let's move on to the next story. Meta is reportedly testing a Reddit competitor called Forum. This is a little bit of a shorter story, but I thought it was interesting. So Meta has recently soft launched, I guess, a new app called Forum designed specifically for Facebook groups, which is arguably Facebook's only useful function left, I would say, on the platform. There hasn't been an official announcement about Forum, but it was seemingly discovered by Matt Navara, a well-known social media consultant. For now, it's only available as an iPhone app on the US app store, so it's not something I could access here in Australia, but everything I've read about it is from people that have. According to reporting from Stevie Bunnyfield for the Verge, he recounted his experience on the app. As he writes, quote, "After logging in with my Facebook account, Forum automatically pulled in the groups I was a part of on Facebook and populated my feed with posts from those groups along with suggestions from groups I'm not a part of. similar to my Reddit feed, although without Reddit pseudonominity. Even though it's not exactly the same, it is being positioned as a Reddit-like platform. As Matt Navara wrote in a tweet, quote, "The app heavily pushes questions, recommendations, and real answers from real people," which is literally how Reddit builds itself. And obviously, these real answers from real people are coming from Facebook groups, like I mentioned. Interestingly though, this isn't the first time Meta has launched an app focusing on Facebook groups. Back in 2014, the company rolled out a dedicated groups app that kind of aimed to make it easier for users to share content across groups, but it ultimately ended up closing 3 years later. But this is clearly an updated version that's attempting to align with our current digital landscape where there is of course an AI component to forum which summarizes interest and conversations across Facebook groups and it's also a way to help admins manage these communities. So I do think it's a little bit similar to how Reddit's AI functions when you search something up and results come up from different subreddits. While there obviously hasn't been an official launch, a Meta spokesperson did kind of confirm forums launch to both Matt Navara and The Verge with a statement reading, quote, "We test lots of new products publicly to see what people find interesting and useful to their experiences across our app." So very vague, not really saying much at all. The reason why I wanted to cover this story though is I think the interesting question here is why Meta would choose to launch a Reddit competitor. Clearly, there is value in community-based platforms. Community is the buzzword of the moment, and Facebook groups already have hundreds of millions of active users and existing communities that Facebook and Meta can capitalize on. So, I guess forum is an attempt to streamline that experience to some degree. The main Facebook feed has also literally become dominated by AI slop and ads. So I guess forum may attempt to strip that back at first at least which is a way to try and encourage Facebook users to engage with the platform and the communities that they care about.

[00:12:47]But if we look at recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal, Mark Zuckerberg shared that Meta is actually looking to create more apps pointing to the efficacy AI brings to workflow that allows them to do this. As the article reads, quote, "Historically, we've built four or five big apps. We want to build a lot more apps. So, there's a bunch of stuff that we're trying to figure out, and some of this we need to figure out over time, Zuckerberg said, referring to Chris Cox, Meta's chief product officer.

[00:13:16]Zuckerberg said, "So, like Chris and I have been talking about, all right, well, can we build 50 new apps? Like, yeah, probably, but we should probably start by doing a few before we just like ramp up trying to do 50 all at once." I don't really see the benefit of launching so many new apps, especially when there are kind of increasing conversations around whether apps will even be a thing of the future. We discussed this a couple weeks ago, I think, when we were talking about the rumors that OpenAI is planning to release a phone in a couple of years that won't include apps. On top of that, we all know how difficult it is to compete with an existing social media platform. We saw that much with the launch of threads and Twitter and how many people just continue to use X even though it is a hellscape. I guess it could also just be an attempt for Meta to kind of encourage people to use their products and flood the market. But I would be curious to hear what you guys think about this and whether you would use the platform. My last story for today is a little bit of a niche one, but I wanted to talk about Pulsia, the quote AI that runs your company while you sleep. The company was founded by a man named Ben who is an engineer who was clearly very passionate about AI. So I went to go look at the Pulsia website and it urges users to quote unquote start a company tonight with Pulsia being the quote first employee and it essentially claims that Pulse can action everything related to the business from running ads to closing deals to posting social media posts. And if you haven't noticed, by the way, Pulsia is AI slot backwards. So that was definitely a choice for a name of a company. As far as the background and intentions behind Pulsia, the about page, which is authored by Ben Reeds, quote, I wanted to build companies that could run themselves. It was almost impossible because the dream was so big. When I finally broke away from the idea of building products manually and used AI, I thought, well, now I may have a little bit of a chance. On the website as well, you can see what Pulsia is allegedly doing in real time for the companies that it manages. So, this may involve finishing tasks, writing emails, and posting on socials. And I did look into some of the companies it claims to operate. And I will say I couldn't find much of an online presence which kind of made me question this whole thing. But more on that in a minute. So Pulsia is actually making the rounds right now on LinkedIn and X for a couple of reasons.

[00:15:49]First, it is because the company recently raised $30 million at a $250 million valuation. And this was the announcement that was posted by Ben on X. quote, "Pulsia just raised $30 million at a $250 million valuation, approaching a 10 million annual run rate. One founder plus AI, zero employees. Pulse runs companies autonomously. It also ran its own fundraising. I just showed up for the signatures." And at the time of researching this story, that announcement had over 5.6 million views on X. And according to Ben, the money came from a slew of investors, including angel investors as well as venture capital firms. But pulse here is also going viral beyond just the financials of the company. The second thing, and perhaps more interesting, is because people are questioning its legitimacy.

[00:16:41]If you look on Reddit, LinkedIn, and X, so many people are questioning the validity of the company and whether it's a scam or not, and if it's claiming to do what it says it is doing. on the r/ AI agent subreddit. This has become a lively topic of conversation. So, a lot of the speculation comes from the fact that the company's name is literally AI slop backwards, which honestly makes the whole company feel sus. As one Reddit user wrote, quote, "It seems to be doing a good job of trolling the bots, though.

[00:17:10]Lots of thoughtful responses from accounts I can now block, which is honestly real. That's how I go through the internet these days." Aside from that, other users are noting the shift in how the industry is responding to the story and talking about it and how it marks just how much tech has changed. As one user wrote on Reddit, quote, "It's funny that the industry moved from increased productivity to never hire again in less than a year just to get customer attention." I think this is an interesting part of the conversation because a couple years ago Sam Olman told Alexis O'hane who was the co-founder of Reddit that he feels like a oneperson billiondoll company is on the horizon thanks to AI. Obviously Pulsia is not that company but it is an example of one that is kind of getting close and I feel like we can see it getting close as well with the rise of agentic AI with Google as I've already spoken about at length today. With this prediction, I do think it's worth thinking about what AI quote unquote employees actually offer in terms of their value. Like not just on a company level, but also for society at large.

[00:18:16]Because if this is the direction that the world is moving in, there are going to be many pain points economically in that process. And we've actually already seen this on a social media level with Moltbook, the social media platform for AI agents. TechCrunch actually covered this phenomenon a while ago. So, I thought I would read a quote from the article. Quote, "With the right type of company and the right execution, it's difficult to see how AI won't nudge dollar figures north as the headcount heads south. But in all likelihood, it will just come down to whether there is a desire for one person to build alone with enough entrepreneurial knowledge to embed a strong defensible business model that someone else can't just replicate at the drop of a hat. But whether society will be ready to handle this is an entirely different question. I am definitely curious to hear what you guys think about Pulsia and this whole conversation at large. So, let me know.

[00:19:08]Okay, well that brings us to the end of Mini Scroll for today. I really hope you guys enjoyed. Lauren will speak to you guys tomorrow for a regular mini scroll episode and thanks for listening. Bye.

[00:19:20]Centennial World Podcast Network operates on Gatagle land. We would like to acknowledge the Gatagle of the Eora nation, the traditional custodians of this land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.