Elon Musk: AI to Render Traditional Search Engines Obsolete

Published Date : 25/05/2025 

Google Search's market share dipped below 90% in late 2024, marking a significant shift in the search engine landscape. Elon Musk believes AI will soon replace traditional search, but the transition comes with its own set of challenges. 

Google Search’s market share fell below 90% in late 2024, happening for the first time in almost a decade. According to StatCounter, the search giant’s share first dropped in the last quarter of 2024, when it hit 89.34%. The company was able to briefly recover to 90.15% in February 2025, then fell back down to 89.71% the following month and has yet to recover.

International Blockchain Consulting Group founder Mario Nawfal first shared this info on his X (formerly Twitter) account, saying, “Why dig through link farms when you can just Grok it and get straight to the point?” Elon Musk then reposted this, adding the caption, “AI will obviate search @grok”.

AI search can indeed be more convenient than sifting through website-based search results. And even though Google sometimes tries to get the best results on the front page of search engine results pages, many “SEO specialists” game the system just to get their websites on top. There’s also the issue of sponsored results, which can confuse people who just want the best answer to their queries.

However, AI search isn’t perfect — we’ve already seen several cringeworthy Google AI answers, and AI is also known to hallucinate and give out wrong answers. So, if you’re going to rely on that, you cannot take its answers at face value. Instead, you must always ask it for sources so you can ascertain for yourself if the answer it returned is true or false. This might be an issue, though, if a user does not do this verification step and takes AI answers as gospel.

More importantly, nothing in this world is free. AI companies are investing billions into research and development, so they have to some way, somehow, make money from it. So, unless everyone pays for an AI subscription, AI search might eventually be filled with ads, too, to offset operational costs.

And who’s to say that AI systems cannot be gamified? We’ve already seen 'experts' online telling people how to make content 'AI-friendly.' While we cannot blame people for offering services to website owners who want their pages to have a wider reach, would AI tech be smart enough to determine when a certain page is the best answer that a specific person is looking for?

The development of AI has been controversial, especially with the countless number of allegations and lawsuits based on the unlawful use of intellectual property. If AI search takes off and starts to replace traditional search, this will definitely be another can of worms that must be addressed, or else we risk killing the creativity that AI LLMs rely on for their training data and end up with useless results from AI searches based on AI-generated gloop. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS): 

Q: What is the current market share of Google Search?

A: As of late 2024, Google Search’s market share dropped below 90% for the first time in almost a decade, hitting 89.34% in the last quarter of 2024.

Q: What did Elon Musk say about AI and search engines?

A: Elon Musk tweeted that AI will obviate search, implying that AI will make traditional search engines like Google Search redundant.

Q: What are the advantages of AI search over traditional search engines?

A: AI search can be more convenient and direct, providing immediate and relevant answers without the need to sift through multiple web pages or deal with sponsored results.

Q: What are the potential drawbacks of AI search?

A: AI search can provide incorrect or hallucinated answers. Users need to verify the sources to ensure the accuracy of the information. Additionally, AI companies may need to monetize through ads, and AI systems can be gamified.

Q: What are the legal concerns surrounding AI search?

A: AI development has faced numerous allegations and lawsuits over the unlawful use of intellectual property. If AI search replaces traditional search, it could lead to new legal challenges and issues with content creativity. 

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