If costs force Google to charge for AI, competitors will cheer

What happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object? News that the search engine is considering charging users for access to its AI-powered search tools comes as a surprise, in a way. Google generates more than half its total revenue from search, almost five times its next most valuable sector, which encompasses every single thing the company charges directly for other than cloud computing. YouTube subscriptions, Pixel phones, Play Store commissions and Gmail storage combined are a drop in the ocean compared with the value of search alone. Charging for access to that moneymaker seems like a nonstarter, in other words.