I've been studying the human brain and how its makeup and plasticity correspond with artificial intelligence.
I've also been monitoring Gemini. Unfortunately, Gemini needs significant training in information architecture (IA). I kept track of this AI correspondence and generous training. They're the geekiest "conversations" I've ever had.
AI that is far, far more accurate than Gemini makes many assumptions and is incredibly biased.
Honestly, I still very much believe the gap between where we stand today with LLMs and the human mind is vast. If the goal is AGI (insert your own definition here; mine is based on self-aware decision making), the systems we’re operating today…I’m not sure they can make that jump. They ARE massively more capable in so many ways than, for example, our search systems today. But to close that gap with how a human mind problem solves, intuits, makes decisions, sort ambiguity? That’s gonna take a while I think.
You ABSOLUTELY nailed this. "They see AI Mode and AI summaries and assume it is 'just another ranking change.' It is not. It is a consumer behavior change that reshapes the economics of discovery. The shift is subtle at first, then it hits you all at once, because it changes what people consider a completed search experience."
Thanks Shari! 🙏🙏 I honestly believe AI/LLMs will change human behavior enough to impact so many other areas of life. Search is the area we focus on, but it’s starting to be at the core of so much of the information we see and consume. It’s bound to have an impact.
I know that there needs to be a taxonomy of AI search. And it is far more complex than a taxonomy of web search.SEOs barely understand web-search taxonomy. For example, does anyone sincerely believe that commercial intent is a separate and unique category?
No. Any SEO software that claims it knows intent? Just ignore that part and use the rest. You cannot determine intent without qualitative testing and analysis. And that is something I've done for decades. Search engines are notoriously poor at determining collaborative searches.
I am glad I'm an SEO, though, because it has prepared me to understand AI taxonomies and user interfaces.
Your work is absolutely brilliant. In this piece is raises the obvious issue: The shift to the answer layer is the most difficult for entrenched SEO practitioners. Its why the SEO gate keepers tend to push back and its hard for them to digest. Its not the same game, even though they overlap.
First off, thanks for the positive feedback and support, Joseph. next, yeah...that elephant in the room - the game IS changing, regardless of any of our motivations, interests or entrenchments. Part of the difficulty being that overlap - that some of the work we used to talk about getting done, still needs to be done. And now, more than ever before, we legitimately have new work to do as well. No one wants to hear we may be moving away from a world where "doing SEO", and the output of that work, worked everywhere - so do the work, and it applies everywhere...to a potential space where you need to do the work for each space, differently. It's disruptive in a way that "mobile friendly" and "personalization" never were.
I've been studying the human brain and how its makeup and plasticity correspond with artificial intelligence.
I've also been monitoring Gemini. Unfortunately, Gemini needs significant training in information architecture (IA). I kept track of this AI correspondence and generous training. They're the geekiest "conversations" I've ever had.
AI that is far, far more accurate than Gemini makes many assumptions and is incredibly biased.
Honestly, I still very much believe the gap between where we stand today with LLMs and the human mind is vast. If the goal is AGI (insert your own definition here; mine is based on self-aware decision making), the systems we’re operating today…I’m not sure they can make that jump. They ARE massively more capable in so many ways than, for example, our search systems today. But to close that gap with how a human mind problem solves, intuits, makes decisions, sort ambiguity? That’s gonna take a while I think.
You ABSOLUTELY nailed this. "They see AI Mode and AI summaries and assume it is 'just another ranking change.' It is not. It is a consumer behavior change that reshapes the economics of discovery. The shift is subtle at first, then it hits you all at once, because it changes what people consider a completed search experience."
Thanks Shari! 🙏🙏 I honestly believe AI/LLMs will change human behavior enough to impact so many other areas of life. Search is the area we focus on, but it’s starting to be at the core of so much of the information we see and consume. It’s bound to have an impact.
I know that there needs to be a taxonomy of AI search. And it is far more complex than a taxonomy of web search.SEOs barely understand web-search taxonomy. For example, does anyone sincerely believe that commercial intent is a separate and unique category?
No. Any SEO software that claims it knows intent? Just ignore that part and use the rest. You cannot determine intent without qualitative testing and analysis. And that is something I've done for decades. Search engines are notoriously poor at determining collaborative searches.
I am glad I'm an SEO, though, because it has prepared me to understand AI taxonomies and user interfaces.
Amen! You nailed it every time.
Your work is absolutely brilliant. In this piece is raises the obvious issue: The shift to the answer layer is the most difficult for entrenched SEO practitioners. Its why the SEO gate keepers tend to push back and its hard for them to digest. Its not the same game, even though they overlap.
First off, thanks for the positive feedback and support, Joseph. next, yeah...that elephant in the room - the game IS changing, regardless of any of our motivations, interests or entrenchments. Part of the difficulty being that overlap - that some of the work we used to talk about getting done, still needs to be done. And now, more than ever before, we legitimately have new work to do as well. No one wants to hear we may be moving away from a world where "doing SEO", and the output of that work, worked everywhere - so do the work, and it applies everywhere...to a potential space where you need to do the work for each space, differently. It's disruptive in a way that "mobile friendly" and "personalization" never were.