The "Deflationary Shock" of AI: Can an economy based on "Free Search" survive?

For 20 years, the internet economy was built on a simple exchange: * **User:** Gives attention (looks at ads). * **Google:** Organizes information (Search). But Generative AI is fundamentally **deflationary**. It creates the answer instantly, with zero "search cost" for the user. The problem is: It has a massive "compute cost" for the provider. We are moving from a **High Margin / Low Cost** model (Search) to a **Low Margin / High Cost** model (AI). I’ve been analyzing the [**unit economics**](https://youtu.be/by3BZzlQKwE?si=fPbAQg_Q3pfdqGAI), and it looks like a massive destruction of economic value. The "Ad-Funded Web" might simply be mathematically impossible in an AI world. Does this lead to a paid-only internet (subscriptions), or do we think a new ad model emerges?