Exactly 1 year ago today, I was sitting at Google's HQ attending its "Web Creators Summit" In one ear I listened to 2 Google Search execs sitting in front of me -- they were apologizing to the 20 small & independent web publishers in the room You see, our websites' search traffic had all been destroyed 📉 We were "collateral damage" in Google's recent push to "reimagine" Search for an "AI-first" future We were given multiple apologies & a promise that Google still cared about human-first web creators But .... as I sat there, I was *also* quietly listening to Google's earnings call via an earbud ... And, on the earnings call, my other ear heard a VERY different story from Sundar Pichai ... Pichai made clear that Google was clearly planning to go even *harder* in the direction of shoving AI summaries onto every corner of Search results & the entire web Investors were excited for more AI summaries because AI keeps users clicking around Google -- and *not* clicking out to websites More AI summaries = more money for Google & its shareholders 🚀 But .... what did this mean for websites like ours that still invested in creating content "by people, for people"? How were us human web creators supposed to survive in Google's new AI-first future? 🤔 Well, I asked exactly that question of Google Search exec Pandu Nayak a few minutes later, during the Q&A part of the program Nayak was clearly caught off guard by my question and fumbled around for an answer He failed to answer the question directly -- but did say we should lean in and use AI to create content ourselves (ummm ... NO thank you: I hate AI slop content) After the Q&A, we all awkwardly walked to a hotel bar to chat with some Googlers for happy hour 🍸 Then-Search Liaison Danny Sullivan, who had organized the event, said he hoped to have us all back in a year for a "happy reunion" to celebrate ours websites' success after Google (hopefully) fixed its algo I left that summit hopeful that some Googlers I met, like Danny, did indeed seem to care about the open web But I was also realistic that Google leadership seemed intent on consuming the open web with AI *** So where do we stand a year later? 📅 Well, Danny is no longer Search Liaison -- in fact, Google did away with the position entirely 😬 And, afaik, there is no "happy reunion" planned Google did tweak its algos a bit, and a few of the websites in that room benefited. I am proud if our efforts contributed to that BUT, by and large, most human-first web publishers are still struggling to be seen in Google's sea of AI Overviews, Reddit & AI spam And, overall, Google is ALL in on AI AI Overviews & AI Mode have now gone global 🌍 And large publishers have *finally* woken up to the reality of what is happening -- and some are finally joining us small sites in fighting back Penske Media is suing Google over AI Overviews Ziff Davis is organizing a publisher revolt against Google I wish they would have listened to us indie sites a year ago when we forewarned of this -- but better late than never, I guess 🤷‍♂️ Meanwhile, on Twitter, Google execs now often use the term "creator" to refer not to human-first web publishers -- but to customers of Google Cloud: spammers who use Gemini to fill the web with AI slop content You see, Google is in the AI spam business now Google is using AI to *become* the web -- to pump out content that costs them nothing because their AI stole it from other websites Like a parasite, Google is using AI to suck as much value as it can from the Internet And Google's stock price has soared (up 58% since the Web Creators' Summit) 📈 Google will have another earnings call later today -- and I'm certain their execs will announce more ways to use AI to suck value from the web But there's a problem when a parasite gets too greedy: It can kill its host If Google keeps down this path of steamrolling human creators & publishers, who will create the content for its AI to summarize?