This is an extremely important point. Something like ChatGPT without attribution can completely kill the open web. Every company will keep their information in closed walled garden if no traffic is flowing through them . I don't see a scenario where something like stackoverflow can exist if no one goes to the site.
I think StackOverflow will exist and do well. 1st, it is source of information for ChatGPT itself so if there would be no new content then AI is going to implode too. 2nd, very often I skip top answer because it has some edge cases or simply is outdated. The answer comments often highlight such issues. I don't think ChatGPT could be trusted without verification, not in serious programming work.
StackOverflow went along way in killing the Tech Blog, and the number of "right" but poor answers on Stack sites are at an all time high
Often the "best" answer on those sites is buried or even downvoted in favor of an answer that "just works" but may have security issues, maintainability issues, is out dated, etc.
In alot of area's I find Stack answer to be of low quality if you happen to have any indepth knowelege of that area.
On the first point, that is no guarantee that users will stay on the site. The AI is currently only using data from 2021 and earlier as far as I'm aware, and does so without feeling out of date. Before we see any significant signs of the AI imploding due to lack of new information, SO might well be long gone
What this is going to allow is a way to flatten org-mode, which will massively expand the amount of people willing to use it. Put anything you wish into your own data collection, and you can instantly pull it up with a prompt. That service would then allow anonymized queries of other peoples data.
If we don't get AGI, the LLM that are starting now and don't have fresh data from people's queries won't be able to get going. The internet will quickly become stale. This will be sped up by the spam that the LLM will be used to create.
Walking through this scenario I don't see anyway for this not to end in a network effect monopoly where one or two services wins.
Maybe we can return to people sharing information/websites purely for the passion of sharing what they love, rather than the greed fueled mess we have today.
