May 27, 2026
A recent poll revealed that 61% of Americans have changed the way they shop for groceries due to higher prices. Even the affluent are experiencing sticker shock at the supermarket. Inflation has spiked prices at the grocery store nearly every year, making what was a $50 bag of groceries in 2020 feel closer to $120 in 2026. This frustratingly exorbitant pricing for everyday items is even occurring at formerly affordable grocery stores. Thankfully, we aren’t forced to subscribe to any one supermarket, and can pick and choose where our food dollar stretches the furthest. However, that wealth of choice is being squeezed out in the place where many of us feed our minds: the Internet and the digital products living on it.
Many artists today lament the fact that useful tools like Photoshop, which once allowed a pay-once-and-use-forever model, now require yearly subscriptions to do basic design work. And while there are non-subscription alternatives like Affinity Photo, access to the broader suite of Adobe apps in its “Creative Cloud” (Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, etc.) is often enough to get users to pay the company’s subscription fee. In the last few years, some designers, rebelling against the integration of AI into nearly every Adobe product, finally cut the virtual cord and unsubscribed from Adobe for other alternatives that don’t subscriptionize every single function.
Why is this important to you, even if you’re not a designer and have zero interest in Adobe products? Well, Adobe (actually one of my favorite software suites) is just one example I’m using to illustrate why nearly every single software company is now trying to force consumers to use an AI feature recently added to its product. It’s not because AI is great (it can be). And it’s not because AI just has a lot of hype right now and every company needs to seem innovative (also true, but not the primary driver). No, it is because AI leads to paid subscriptions that most consumers will likely become dependent on. Part of the reason this discussion isn’t happening even in most mainstream media is that subscription revenues have become a vital source of income for nearly every digital business, including the tech media that is trusted to rigorously analyze and dissect Big Tech. So talking down on subscriptions is bad juju.
As a result, what we have here is a slow-moving AI subscription cash grab that no one wants to talk about because it could eventually benefit nearly every business stakeholder involved. To be more direct: The free Internet we’ve enjoyed for years, which has increasingly been riddled with subscription paywalls, is being accelerated into an entirely paid service under the guise of AI efficiencies.
Of course, this AI subscription trajectory may seem obvious to some. But for many others, it’s not. Many normal internet users currently assume that AI subscriptions will forever remain optional. An add-on service, in case Internet users can afford to pay for that seeming extra boost in speed and efficiency AI can sometimes deliver. But what if the only way you could use the commercial Internet was by subscribing to some kind of AI-powered service?
This is what occurred to me after Google rolled out its update to Google Search last week, promising to gradually put AI answers front and center instead of working for millions of websites as a guide for users to find services and information from individuals, academics, and millions of independent entrepreneurs.
The current illusion that AI chatbots, software, and services are cheap/free for end users is exactly that, an illusion. AI is terribly expensive for the companies providing these services. That’s why AI startups seem to fill their war chests so regularly. In January, xAI secured another $20 billion in investment, Anthropic added $30 billion in February, and OpenAI announced a new $122 billion funding injection in March.
These companies plan to make that money back, many times over. So the cheap/free AI service many are using today is just part of the classic freemium-to-premium funnel that typifies predatory pricing popular in everything from too-cheap-to-resist ad-free Netflix in its early years, formerly insanely affordable, versus traditional taxis, Uber rides, free samples of pharmaceuticals to doctors that lead to patient dependencies, and even free bank checking accounts that lead to higher “relationship pricing” if customers don’t have a high enough balance in their account.
The AI gold rush isn’t primarily about optimizing our lives, it’s mostly about capturing that early relationship that hopefully leads to dependency, which leads to a lifetime subscription. The argument that many media professionals are presenting about Google effectively stealing their content and repackaging it as AI answers in search is largely accurate. But it doesn’t directly address the true goal, which is to make Google Search, and effectively the entire Internet, a paid service for end users.
Let me say that again: Google’s AI-powered Search is actually a plan to get users to eventually pay to search the Internet.
Putting a Price On What Was Free
On some level, Google almost certainly determined that this was necessary because AI chatbots like Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and even Perplexity have, for many Internet users, already become a paid adjunct to Google Search. And in many cases, AI chatbot user habits are slowly sliding from traditional search augmentation to a primary search tool. I’ve written here frequently about why using confabulation-prone AI to check vital facts is dangerous in 2026. The classic Google link structure of tying information to a source that users are organically encouraged to check, rather than just blindly trust because “it’s on Google,” was always the strength of Google Search. Internet users weren’t “trusting Google,” they were trusting the sources it helped them find and vet themselves.
But so many people are now treating AI chatbots—including the Gemini AI chatbot embedded in Google—as their primary search tool that the discussion about how this all plays out economically is being missed by most consumers. Truth and where we get it from are incredibly important. But just as important, and often inextricably linked to the truth we frame reality with, is how we pay our bills and keep a roof over our heads.
Today, AI costs for a typical non-professional user are negligible or non-existent, so the AI cost conversation is in the blind spot for many individual AI users. Yet the companies raising hundreds of billions to fund their AI efforts cannot do that forever. Eventually, real and sustainable profit must be achieved. And if anyone assumes that it will only be achieved at the enterprise level as primarily a cost for big business, they’re mistaken. Listen closely enough, and even the slickest talkers in AI will eventually reveal their real plan for the technology. Months ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman let everyone know that the plan is to make AI access as essential as water and electricity.
“We see a future where intelligence is a utility like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter and use it for whatever they want to use it for. The demand that we see for that seems like it’s going to continue to just go like this [points hand upward].”
The CEO behind ChatGPT actually said this.
But because it’s so early for most AI users, the implications of this public statement flew over a lot of heads. Conversely, this strategy isn’t missed by the likes of Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, so he had to act. Immediately. And that’s why basic Google Search, you heard it here first, will be a paid service in the near-ish future.
Will there be an incredibly hobbled and ad-laden free version of Google Search that is powered by AI? Maybe?
A Lifetime Subscription to Reality, With Annual Increases
Timing in this AI gold rush is also key. If you’re a Millennial or older, you probably remember when the Internet was inherently free to use, except for your ISP (Internet Service Provider) bill. But for younger users, raised on an Internet full of subscription paywalls and paid apps, an AI-powered pay-to-access Internet doesn’t seem like much of an affront. It seems perfectly natural. Therefore, the time has come for Big Tech to step into the ISP’s lane as a utility provider and monetize the entire Internet tech stack, from broke individual users, all the way up to giant corporate clients. The AI utility bill is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.
Remember that, in 2026, even if you have a great domain name, say, “NewsToday.com,” users who know your easy-to-remember domain name will still often type “newstoday” into Google to visit your site rather than type the domain name + .com into their browser. Google understands this. The company knows that it is, for many users, essentially the default Internet.
Therefore, Google’s move to AI-ify ALL search is the quickest and most far-reaching way to immediately (or soonish) turn Google, aka the Internet, into a paid service. In the beginning, many people will cope by citing the low costs (as they currently rationalize the $20-a-month for ChatGPT and Claude). But as unrelenting subscription price increases at Netflix, Amazon, and Apple TV have shown us, it doesn’t matter how much money the provider is making, shareholder value demands that the subscription fees must continue to go up, almost completely decoupled from inflation metrics.
Do you really think all these hundreds of billions in investment and the construction of all these massive AI data centers are all in play just to continue to deliver you free/cheap AI access? No, these are investments in the future. Not 50 years from now. The AI profit engine based on consumer buy-in is being activated now.
Similarly, the promise that you, the solopreneur, using AI to scale beyond your normal reach sounds brilliant in today’s framework, where a user’s monthly Internet bills are generally limited to an ISP payment and a few news, entertainment, and app subscriptions. But add the costs of an ISP bill, an AI-driven Google Search bill, and a few other subscriptions, and suddenly the idea of paying for a solopreneur’s niche AI-powered software or digital service in “addition” to all these other monthly bills becomes onerous for all but the most solidly well-off consumer. If we thought subscription fatigue was an issue before, Google and other Big Tech AI players are about to make it even worse.
What Can You Do?
So what can you do? Well, there are no completely clean answers, so I’ll just tell you what I’m doing. I’m not anti-AI. I think to be broadly, unwaveringly anti-AI is simply unwise in terms of what it can do for you in the best-case scenarios. Due to ever-increasing AI costs, making your business or personal life fundamentally dependent on an AI service that you must pay for monthly is a precarious proposition.
Conversely, if I don’t like the current slate of Apple TV shows, or I’m having a rough financial quarter, I can just cancel Apple TV (which recently raised its price from $10 to $13 a month, by the way), and maybe pick it back up when things are better. But if I tether my business or personal daily life to AI, and the service goes bad due to a poor model, or my finances demand that I scale back costs, canceling an AI service could have much greater impacts on my daily life. So I’ve currently designed a digital strategy that positions AI as seasoning, rather than as a staple. An augmentation rather than a base-layer tool. Does this make me less optimized? Possibly. But this approach also makes me far less sensitive to the finicky vicissitudes of AI companies, which change their pricing, strategy, access rules, and quality about every three months.
In the case of Google Search, soon after Google I/O ended and the news of Google Search becoming AI-centric fully landed for me, I posted on Twitter/X a link to DuckDuckGo.com. No message, no clarion call to resist Google Search, just a link. It was my way of saying, “Consider all options that don’t require full AI buy-in.” DuckDuckGo isn’t as pretty as Google Search, but for most things, I find it to be incredibly robust and useful, and they make a point of allowing you to have an AI-free search experience. In a way, DuckDuckGo is to Google as Affinity Photo is to Photoshop. However, Canva acquired Affinity Photo in 2024 and immediately offered a freemium tier, which has made many Affinity users a bit nervous about its future. Nevertheless, it works for now.
Similarly, DuckDuckGo (which you can also access via Duck.com) could eventually be acquired, and things may change. When it comes to the Internet, one must always be nimble and ready to change to get the best deal and the best experience. If this isn’t your default behavior and you like to just set-it-and-forget-it in the realm of digital experiences, the advent of AI is your signal to change your behavior. If you need more prompting, consider the fact that even major tech companies like Uber and Microsoft have decided that the AI bill is too high and have decided to cut back.
In 2026, you cannot rely on AI services to always be reasonably priced, or even offer the best experience. For all its efficiencies, AI has presented us with a newly essential job that used to be a luxury: universal digital vigilance. We don’t trust that every bell pepper at the supermarket will be perfectly ripe. We squeeze the produce, take a hard look at it under the best light, and re-check the price to make sure we’re not overpaying. This is now how we must choose our Internet information providers. Yes, it can be mentally taxing, but I assure you, it’s worth it.
Whether your concern is data privacy, costs, or you simply don’t trust AI, adopting the nimble digital consumer posture has never been more important. The subscription Internet is coming. Opting out may not be possible. So it’s time to train yourself to shop for the best information deal you can get. Constantly, skeptically, and with an adversarial approach to price and privacy. The consumer information-as-product war has already begun, and Big Tech companies are no more concerned about your mental and professional health than Coca-Cola is when peddling its sugar water to your family. AI is not the enemy, but it is also not your friend. Shop wisely. ✍︎
New essays on AI, film, & entertainment innovation arrive by email. Subscribe to stay in the loop. All editorial text is written by humans.
