Search algos got really bad before AI. I blame defaulting to reddit, which is cesspool of mediocrity. But not only that, elabored searches stopped working. It just took the two words from it like "Linux VirtualBox" and showed you generic page about installing Linux in VirtualBox. Totally omitted the other qualifiers. Before it did proper search for all elements.
Saving on CPU?
Allocating resources to futurer TPU searches?
Plot to switch us to AI as saviour?
original algorithm broke down with scale?
I wonder how do they plan on satisfying advertisers with the AI answers.