AI is on a trajectory to be a constant companion, giving one-shot answers to many of our requests. Because of the massive costs of creating a full-blown AI model, it’s fair to assume that only a few companies will dominate the field. Right now, I’d say AI is in what Doctorow calls the “good to the users” stage. The nightmare is that AI models will make recommendations based on which companies have paid for placement. The AI search platform Perplexity has a program where sponsored results appear in clearly labeled follow-ups.