A few years later, in 2024, researchers in multiple labs were horrified to notice toxic batches of agar for reasons as yet unclear. After they observed a worrying lack of microbial growth (impeding their ability to carry out basic experiments), they switched to different agar suppliers, and their results improved.
This evolution mirrors what happened with featured snippets and knowledge panels over the past decade. Google gradually introduced elements that answered questions directly on the search page rather than requiring clicks to external sites. AI Mode represents the next iteration of this trend—more comprehensive answers, synthesized from multiple sources, delivered conversationally rather than as extracted snippets.
AI 'slop' is transforming social media - and a backlash is brewing
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