Deb Perelman, the mind behind the renowned food blog Smitten Kitchen, is marking 20 years of online presence this summer. Perelman’s approach has always been to engage with her audience across various social media platforms, directing them back to her website for recipes and stories. However, she now confronts a new dilemma: AI-generated summaries.

Perelman expressed surprise at encountering her own recipes summarized by AI in top search results without her consent. This has prompted her to seek safeguards against AI infringement on her website. Google recently introduced “AI Mode” in its search feature, resembling conversational interactions with AI chatbots and boasting over a billion monthly users.

Google’s emphasis on AI-generated summaries over website links is reshaping user behavior, as people increasingly find answers without leaving Google’s platform. Similarly, AI chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT are now capable of providing recommendations and performing complex tasks, altering the landscape for website creators reliant on human traffic.

The decline in human web traffic is evident across various sectors, with notable decreases in retail, software, IT, and finance websites. As search algorithms prioritize conversational interactions over keywords, websites must adapt to become part of AI-generated responses. This shift has led to the rise of generative engine optimization (GEO) alongside traditional SEO practices.

While content creators on social media platforms can monetize their work through brand partnerships, websites often rely on ad revenue or subscriptions to sustain their content. The influx of AI bots accessing web content raises concerns about the future of independent content creation and the potential dominance of large corporations or AI-generated content.

Websites like Wikipedia incur costs from AI bots accessing their content, prompting collaborations with tech giants to offset these expenses. As media companies navigate declining web traffic, some are contemplating altering their relationship with search engines like Google to safeguard their content and revenue streams.

Despite these challenges, there remains hope for a model that supports the open web and diverse perspectives. Perelman underscores the unique value of individual creators’ perspectives, emphasizing that AI summaries lack the nuanced context that creators provide in their content.