Interesting numbers for Google, etc…
Are AI Chatbots Changing How We Shop? | Yale Insights:
A very recent study on this topic was conducted by a group of economists in collaboration with OpenAI’s Economic Research team. According to this paper, most ChatGPT usage falls into three categories, which the authors call practical guidance, seeking information, and writing. Notably, the share of messages classified as seeking information rose from 18% in July 2024 to 24% in June 2025, highlighting the ongoing shift from traditional web search toward AI-assisted search.
Good article. It points to the enormous profit potential of ChatGPT, for instance. They can integrate all sorts of dynamic and intuitive shopping platforms with the chats we keep. It will eliminate the need for a lot of clicking on links, scrolling, and filling in forms. It’s the profit potential that scares me. There isn’t a crook alive who wouldn’t love to hook billions of people with their wallets into something they will eventually have to start paying for.
Thanks for this. I feel that tension too. On the one hand, the interface possibilities here are genuinely exciting… the way these systems collapse friction, reduce the endless click-scroll-submit loops, and let us interact with information more conversationally. That’s part of what drew me to write the piece in the first place.
But like you, I don’t think we can talk about that promise without naming the economic gravity behind it. These tools don’t emerge in a vacuum. They’re shaped by the same extractive logic that has driven everything from social media feeds to industrial agriculture. When you tie something as intimate as conversation to profit, you risk hollowing out the relationship, the way monocultures hollow out a field.
I’m hopeful, though, because I think we’re at a moment when people are becoming more attuned to that dynamic. There’s a growing hunger for technologies that serve communities rather than harvest them in an extractive manner… tools that help us think with the world rather than strip-mine attention or wallets. If we can push these systems toward openness, transparency, and genuine partnership, they may become part of a healthier digital ecology (my hope).
But your concern is real, and worth keeping right at the center of the conversation. If we don’t insist on guardrails, the profit motive will fill the vacuum every time.
Thanks again for helping keep that front and center!