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MINI TECH SCROLL: Google Search's new AI era, Meta tests Reddit competitor + one-person AI company raises billions · Mini Scroll

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  Coming up today on Mini Tech Scroll, Google overhauls the
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  search bar after 25 years, Facebook is coming for Reddit
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  and the AI slot company that raised millions of dollars.
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  Hey everyone, and welcome to Mini scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bring you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  My name is Annabelle and I'm your Wednesday Mini Tech Scroll
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  host and also the deputy editor of Australian youth digital
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  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to to Mini Tech
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  Scroll for another Wednesday. Before we get into today's
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  episode, I need to ask the audience if any of you are
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  watching Euphoria because this week's episode truly ended me.
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  Like I don't know why I'm still watching this show and I need to
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  know what the audience thinks because I'm struggling.
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  Honestly, if it wasn't the finale next week, I would not
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  keep watching. OK, and before we get into the
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  stories, Please remember to rate, review and subscribe and
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  feel free to check out our Patreon for more or behind the
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  scenes parasocial content. Lauren is actually recording a
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  Patreon right after this, so keep a lookout.
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  OK? The first story for today is
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  that we need to talk about how Google search is having a
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  complete overhaul. So this news actually broke last
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  week, but it was after I had prepared and recorded the
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  podcast, so I thought I would save it until this week so I
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  could also include some of the reactions to it.
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  So some of the biggest changes are coming to the Google search
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  bar since 2001. At Google IO, the annual
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  developer conference, it was announced that Google is leaning
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  further into AI, which is honestly not really a surprise.
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  But we will essentially be saying goodbye to searching
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  through the blue links and websites that best match a
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  search query when we search on Google, which is obviously what
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  we are all used to by this point.
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  So there will be 3 main changes. The 1st is that it will
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  essentially normalize searching through AI mode.
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  This comes off the back of Google launching AI mode last
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  year in March, which has since quote surpassed 1 billion
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  monthly users with queries more than doubling every quarter
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  since launch, according to Google's blog.
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  This has been a major win for Google because after Open AI
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  released ChatGPT in 2022, there were so many concerns that AI
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  startups would disrupt Google's dominance in search, and clearly
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  it hasn't. In saying that Google is taking
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  some cues from AI chat bots by announcing the intelligence
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  search box, Which which is designed to be more quote UN
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  quote intuitive and make it easier to flow into a
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  conversational back and forth with AI mode when you are
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  searching. And I will say that these
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  changes haven't necessarily been smooth sailing so far.
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  Earlier this week, I'm sure you guys may have seen some people
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  talking about it online. There was a glitch within
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  Google's AI search that caused the engine to misinterpret the
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  word disregard as a system command.
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  So it essentially went on to display the message, quote UN
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  quote, understood, message disregarded instead of showing
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  the dictionary definition. So things are not going so
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  smoothly as of right now. The next change is how AI will
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  be involved in search. So Google also announced that we
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  will be entering the era of AI agents.
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  I know we kind of talk about AI agents here and there, but as a
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  reminder, an AI agent is a system or program that will
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  autonomously perform tasks instead of a user.
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  So that will involve both reasoning and actioning.
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  With that, Google is introducing Gemini Spark, which is an always
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  on 24/7 personal AI agent. It will operate in the
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  background, aiming to keep users up to date with anything they
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  deem as relevant. As the blog post reads quote,
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  our agent will intelligent urgently look across everything
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  on the web like blogs, news sites, and social posts, plus
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  our freshest data. It will send you an intelligent
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  synthesized update with the ability to take action.
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  So if you're apartment hunting, you can brain dump all of the
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  exact requirements you're looking for and your agent will
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  continuously scan for you, notifying you when listings meet
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  your needs. Another example that Google
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  offered in the blog, because I do feel like it is easier to
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  conceptualize this through examples, is about how agents
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  will operate when it comes to booking.
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  So the blog post said that you can basically ask Google to call
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  a business on your behalf. And honestly, that sounds
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  insane. But as a Gen.
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  Z who hates phone calls, I kind of rate that.
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  But also I acknowledge that this is just a form of like
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  optimizing what may just be like important human interaction and
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  it's probably unnecessary. These are obviously massive
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  changes though, because This Is Us kind of starting to see
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  Google become increasingly personalized.
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  Like obviously social media has been moving in this direction
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  for a while now, but when you think about Google search, it
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  has remained relatively consistent.
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  No matter how you use the Internet, your interests, or
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  like personal preferences, when a user searches something up,
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  there will be consistent and validated information that pops
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  up no matter the political standpoint.
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  This, as far as I understand will change to some degree with
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  these updates because it will be relying on personalized
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  information and connecting your apps like Gmail, Google Photos,
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  and Calendar to the whole search process.
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  Obviously objective information will remain the same, but it is
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  something to consider when you are searching something that is
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  more subjective. The last change worth noting is
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  how Google is introducing agentic coding.
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  So Google explains this as kind of mini apps for users where
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  basically agents will have the capability to create tools for
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  users for repeated tasks or searches.
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  This is another example that the blog gives quote often you
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  aren't asking 1 of questions. You have an ongoing task you
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  find yourself searching for over and over, like planning a
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  wedding or managing a home move. Search can go a step further,
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  building new custom dashboards or trackers that you can
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  continue to come back to and make progress on, and this will
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  reportedly be rolling out over the next few months.
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  It's safe to say that these changes will have widespread
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  impact, especially when you consider how Google pretty much
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  dominates search and information gathering online.
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  From the perspective of digital media slash publishes, this is
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  obviously ominous because it really is the final nail in the
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  coffin as far as traffic from Google goes.
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  This has obviously been an issue for some time now, with Google
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  directing less and less traffic to websites because of Gemini
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  and other AI models, and this has been a problem for
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  businesses that relied on programmatic ads and things like
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  that. In response to this, I have seen
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  reporting from Google's perspective contending that
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  there will still be traffic between search and websites.
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  They claim that the difference will be quality over quantity.
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  So instead of getting millions of visitors on a website, they
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  will get less traffic, but more genuinely interested consumers.
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  And to me, I think that shows how Google views the Internet at
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  this stage where it's all about taking action, making purchases
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  as opposed to information gathering and seeking.
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  And I will say the decreased emphasis on kind of information
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  seeking independently where it's being allocated to AI agents
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  does worry me a little bit for the future of media literacy and
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  dissentment online. I was looking into the responses
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  towards these changes and it does seem like many social media
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  users aren't not happy, which honestly is not really a
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  surprise. On Reddit, I've seen a whole
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  bunch of users deciding to switch to other browsers to try
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  and get away from Google with DuckDuckGo, which is an example
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  I've discussed before, being one that is one of the most
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  frequently mentioned. And like I said, this isn't
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  really surprising because there has been growing, of course,
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  among tech circles online recently, particularly how among
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  youth consumers, they are less and less interested in AI.
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  And this is really picked up ever since the former Google CEO
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  Eric Schmidt was recently booed when he gave a university
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  commencement speech, which I feel like has been hard to
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  escape online recently. In a similar vein, I've also
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  recently seen the announcement of the AI Resist list, which is
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  billed as quote, a new project that documents examples of
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  resistance to the AI empires around the world, which I think
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  is just another example of this sentiment bubbling.
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  I'm definitely curious to hear your thoughts because I do
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  understand how some of these updates can streamline slash
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  optimize the search and information gathering experience
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  for the user. I'm just not sure that that's
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  always a good thing. Like when you're doing research,
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  sometimes falling down like a research hole is so important to
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  figuring out what you want to learn and talk about.
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  And these updates are not necessarily facilitated to kind
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  of let that happen. And I thought how Ryan Broderick
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  put it in a recent edition of garbage day kind of epitomized
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  this point perfectly. Quote for the hobbyists and
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  civil organizations and activists and education
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  resources and the myriad of eccentric Internet weirdos out
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  that traffic, even unmonitized, makes it all feel worth it.
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  If Google replaces search with AI, that entire virtuous circle
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  breaks down. Meta, open AI and Anthropic are
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  convinced that chat interface of the new passport to the web the
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  way a Gmail address, a Facebook account or an Apple ID was in
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  the 20 tens. Some many of these companies
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  will likely not survive the inevitable market contraction
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  around AI, but we have enough proof now to definitively say
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  that they are willing to cannibalize their own companies
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  and their role in maintaining core features of the Internet to
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  chase their dreams of AI domination.
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  Let's move on to the next story. Meta is reportedly testing a
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  Reddit competitor called Forum. This is a little a bit of a
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  shorter story, but I thought it was interesting.
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  So Meta has recently soft launched, I guess a new app
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  called Forum designed specifically for Facebook
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  Groups, which is arguably Facebook's only useful function
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  left, I would say on the platform.
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  There hasn't been an official announcement about Forum, but it
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  was seemingly discovered by Matt Navarra, a well known social
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  media consultant. For now, it's only available as
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  an iPhone app on the US App Store.
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  So it's not something I could access here in Australia, but
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  everything I've read about it is from people that have.
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  According to reporting from Stevie Bunnifield for The Verge,
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  he recounted his experience on the app as he writes Quote after
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  logging in with my Facebook account, forum automatically
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  pulled in the groups I was a part of on Facebook and
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  populated my feed with posts from those groups along with
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  suggestions from groups I'm not a part of.
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  Similar to my Reddit feed, although without Reddit
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  pseudonymity. Even though it's not exactly the
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  same, it is being positioned as a Reddit like platform.
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  As Matt Navarro wrote in a tweet quote, the app heavily pushes
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  questions, recommendations, and real answers from real people,
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  which is literally how Reddit builds itself.
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  And obviously these real answers from real people are coming from
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  Facebook groups, like I mentioned.
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  Interestingly, though, this isn't the first time Meta has
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  launched an app focusing on Facebook groups.
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  Back in 2014, the company rolled out a dedicated Groups app that
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  kind of aimed to make it easier for users to share content
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  across groups, but it ultimately ended up closing three years
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  later. But this is clearly an updated
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  version that's attempting to align without current digital
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  landscape, where there is of course, an AI component to forum
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  which summarizes interests and conversations across Facebook
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  groups. And it's also a way to help
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  admins manage these communities. So I do think it's a little bit
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  similar to how Reddit's AI functions when you search
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  something up and results come up from different subreddits.
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  Well, there obviously hasn't been an official launch.
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  A Meta spokesperson did kind of confirm forums launch to both
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  Matt Navara and The Verge with a statement reading quote.
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  We test lots of new products publicly to see what people find
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  interesting and useful to their experiences across our app.
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  So very vague, not really saying much at all.
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  The reason why I wanted to cover this story though is I think the
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  interesting question here is why Meta would choose to launch a
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  Reddit competitor. Clearly there is value in
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  community based platforms. Community is the buzzword of the
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  moment. And Facebook groups already have
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  hundreds of millions of active users and existing communities
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  that Facebook and Meta can capitalize on.
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  So I guess Forum is an attempt to stream like that experience
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  to some degree. The main Facebook feed has also
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  literally become dominated by AI slop and ads.
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  So I guess Forum may attempt to strip that back at first at
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  least, which is a way to try and encourage Facebook users to
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  engage with the platform and the communities that they care
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  about. But if we look at recent
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  reporting by The Wall Street Journal, Mark Zuckerberg said
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  that Meta is actually looking to create more apps, pointing to
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  the efficacy AI brings to workflow that allows them to do
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  this. As the article reads, quote,
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  historically we've built four or five big apps.
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  We want to build a lot more apps.
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  So there's a bunch of stuff that we're trying to figure out, and
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  some of this we need to figure out over time, Zuckerberg said,
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  referring to Chris Cox, Meta's chief product officer.
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  Zuckerberg said. So like Chris and I have been
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  talking about, all right, well, can we build 50 new apps?
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  Like, yeah, probably, but we should probably start by doing a
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  few before we just like ramp up trying to do 50 all at once.
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  I don't really see the benefit of launching so many new apps,
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  especially when there are kind of increasing conversations
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  around whether apps will even be a thing of the future.
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  We discussed this a couple weeks ago, I think, when we were
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  talking about the rumours that Open AI is planning to release a
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  phone in a couple of years that won't include apps.
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  On top of that, we all know how difficult it is to compete with
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  an existing social media platform.
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  We saw that much with the launch of Threads and Twitter and how
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  many people just continue to use X even though it is a hellscape.
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  I guess it could also just be an attempt for Meta to kind of
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  encourage people to use their products and flood the market,
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  but I would be curious to hear what you guys think about this
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  and whether you would use the platform.
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  My last story for today is a little bit of a niche one, but I
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  wanted to talk about Pulsia, the quote AI that runs your company
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  while you sleep. The company was founded by a man
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  named Ben, who is an engineer who was clearly very passionate
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  about AI. So I went to go look at the
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  Pulsia website and it urges users to quote UN quote start a
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  company tonight with Pulsia being the quote first employee.
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  And it essentially claims that Pulsia can action everything
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  related to the business from running ads to closing deals to
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  posting social media posts. And if you haven't noticed, by
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  the way, Pulsia is AI slot backwards.
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  So that was definitely a choice for a name of a company.
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  As far as the background and intentions behind Pulsia, the
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  About page, which is authored by Ben, reads quote.
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  I wanted to build companies that could run themselves.
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  It was almost impossible because the dream was so big.
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  When I finally broke away from the idea of building products
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  manually and used AI, I thought, well, now I may have a little
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  bit of a chance. On the website as well, you can
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  see what Pulsia is allegedly doing in real time for the
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  companies that it manages. So this may involve finishing
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  tasks, writing emails, and posting on socials.
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  And I did look into some of the companies it claims to operate.
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  And I will say I couldn't find much of an online presence,
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  which kind of made me question this whole thing.
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  But more on that in a minute. So Pulsia is actually making the
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  rounds right now on LinkedIn and X for a couple of reasons.
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  First, it is because the company recently raised $30 million at a
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  $250 million valuation. And this was the announcement
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  that was posted by Ben on X quote, Pulcia just raised $30
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  million at a $250 million valuation, approaching a 10
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  million annual run rate. One founder plus AI0 employees.
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  Pulcia runs companies autonomously.
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  It also ran its own fundraising. I just showed up for the
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  signatures and at the time of researching this story, that
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  announcement had over 5.6 million views on X.
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  And according to Ben, the money came from a slew of investors,
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  including Angel investors as well as venture capital firms.
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  But polls here is also going viral beyond just the financials
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  of the company. The second thing, and perhaps
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  more interesting, is because people are questioning its
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  legitimacy. If you look on Reddit, LinkedIn,
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  and X, so many people are questioning the validity of the
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  company and whether it's a scam or not and if it's claiming to
• 16:48
  do what it says it is doing. On the R/AI agent subreddit,
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  this has become a lively topic of conversation.
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  So a lot of this speculation comes from the fact that the
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  company's name is literally AI Slop backwards, which honestly
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  makes the whole company feel SUS.
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  As one Reddit user wrote quote. It seems to be doing a good job
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  of trolling the butts though. Lots of thoughtful responses
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  from accounts I can now block, which is honestly real.
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  That's how I go through the Internet these days.
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  Aside from that, other users are noting the shift in how the
• 17:20
  industry is responding to the story and talking about it and
• 17:23
  how it marks just how much tech has changed.
• 17:28
  As one user wrote on Reddit quote, it's funny that the
• 17:30
  industry moved from increased productivity to never hire again
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  in less than a year just to get customer attention.
• 17:37
  I think this is an interesting part of the conversation because
• 17:40
  a couple years ago Sam Altman told Alexis Ohanian, who was the
• 17:44
  Co founder of Reddit, that he feels like a one person billion
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  dollar company is on the horizon thanks to AI.
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  Obviously, Pulsia is not that company, but it is an example of
• 17:55
  one that is kind of getting close.
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  And I feel like we can see it getting close as well with the
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  rise of agentic AI with Google, as I've already spoken about at
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  length today with this prediction.
• 18:05
  I do think it's worth thinking about what AI quote, UN quote,
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  employees actually offer in terms of their value, like not
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  just on a company level, but also for society at large.
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  Because if this is the direction that the world is moving in,
• 18:19
  there are going to be many pain points economically in that
• 18:21
  process. And we've actually already seen
• 18:23
  this on a social media level with Malt Book, the social media
• 18:28
  platform for AI agents. TechCrunch actually covered this
• 18:32
  phenomenon a while ago, so I thought I would read a quote
• 18:35
  from the article. Quote.
• 18:37
  With the right type of company and the right execution, it's
• 18:40
  difficult to see how AI won't nudge dollar figures north as
• 18:43
  the headcount head South. But in all likelihood, it will
• 18:46
  just come down to whether there is a desire for one person to
• 18:49
  build a loan with enough entrepreneurial knowledge to
• 18:52
  embed a strong, defensible business model that someone else
• 18:55
  can't just replicate at the drop of a hat.
• 18:57
  But whether the society will be ready to handle this is an
• 19:00
  entirely different question. I'm definitely curious to hear
• 19:03
  what you guys think about Pulsia and this whole conversation at
• 19:06
  large. So let me know.
• 19:08
  OK, Well, that brings us to the end of Mini Tech Scroll for
• 19:11
  today. I really hope you guys enjoyed.
• 19:13
  Lauren will speak to you guys tomorrow for a regular mini
• 19:16
  scroll episode. And thanks for listening.
• 19:19
  Bye. Centennial World Podcast Network
• 19:21
  operates on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
• 19:24
  Gadigal of the Aura Nation, the traditional custodians of this
• 19:27
  land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.