We often see, posted on forums like Reddit, questions that could be answered in minutes with Google. We generally assume that the poster is lazy, but it takes more time to post on Reddit than query Google. What the poster is looking for is certainty, not a shortcut. It’s still about saving time, but not in the way we assume.

Most of us believe the poster is trying to shave seconds in typing here vs. there. Instead, perhaps unconsciously, the poster is trying to secure a definitive answer. He/she believes that the wisdom of the crowd has arrived to one before him/her.

The definitive answer is not guaranteed, but the poster trusts his/her fellow humans so much that relying on their opinion is faster than reviewing the few pages Google suggests and forming an opinion about them.

It’s not about shaving seconds, but about conserving a considerable amount of energy.

If we start to trust AI as much as we trust communities of fellow humans, we might see less and less value in Google as a search engine.

And why shouldn’t we? We’ve been told that AI scraped the whole Internet and it’s capable of summarizing the opinion of the entire planet.