Beta testing ...

Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic

The Atlantic's right, we are in a new age, requiring diligence, curiosity and skepticism in order to get valid information thanks to AI taking over the net. Search is now becoming problematic as AI can hallucinate without question, which brings up the importance of education to determining whether the information on the net is actually true. The other part of the equation is how people are letting AI do the job without truly understanding what the job entails as knowing how to do something requires effort because there's always a cost to doing anything.

Even without actively seeking out a chatbot, billions of people are now pushed to interact with AI when searching the web, checking their email, using social media, and online shopping. Ninety-two percent of Fortune 500 companies use OpenAI products, universities are providing free chatbot access to potentially millions of students, and U.S. national-intelligence agencies are deploying AI programs across their workflows.

When ChatGPT went down for several hours last week, everyday users, students with exams, and office workers posted in despair: “If it doesnt come back soon my boss is gonna start asking why I havent done anything all day,” one person commented on Downdetector, a website that tracks internet outages. “I have an interview tomorrow for a position I know practically nothing about, who will coach me??” wrote another. That same day—June 10, 2025—a Google AI overview told me the date was June 18, 2024.

Question, what happens when the power goes out? I thought so.