Stack overflow still had an amazing percentage of answers to tech question but of course it’s not the only source.

Realistically I used to use a search engine for answers and it was pretty good about discovering relevant answers. Usually I clicked a handful off links from the first page of results, evaluated them, and selected the answer

Now the search engine returns an ai summary of the top results. It’s a bit slower but sometimes I can just use that. Other times I may need to click into sources for more information or to evaluate what it’s telling me. The big difference is who does the first evaluation/summary. Originally the ai was slower and less accurate but it rapidly improved

But here’s the problem. The older approach meant I clicked into the source. If they relied on ads or tracking, they received their income to support themselves. If it’s a gamified community source, responders got their karma. It was sustainable. Now with the ai, no one visits the original site and no one has incentive to contribute more answers. The ai is rapidly improving at the cost of its own sources