Creep

About twenty years ago, when Google first came out, as an educator and teacher it felt almost magical. I could type in a lesson plan and find exactly what I needed within seconds. There were so many sites teachers could use, and information felt open and easy to access.

Then, as the years went by, I started noticing something. It became harder and harder to find the things I was actually looking for. Resources moved behind paywalls. Sites promised to be free, but then wanted me to sign up for newsletters or create accounts.

I began wondering why.

Now, I don’t know if any of this is fully valid — this is just my assumption — but I kept hearing the same thing: Google has to make money.

And eventually, Google started feeling less usable to me. Why? Ads.

The reality is that if you wanted to appear at the top of Google, you could pay for it. If you paid for ad space, you got displayed first. So sometimes you weren’t necessarily getting the best results; you were getting whoever paid the most. The first page slowly became less about quality and more about visibility.

Then along came AI.

AI feels incredible right now. You can ask questions in almost any way you want. You can search naturally. You can have a conversation with it instead of typing keywords and hoping for the best.

But recently I noticed something.

As I was working, I started seeing messages like: You’ve used 90% of your credits.

Wait… where did credits come from?

Then another message appears: Buy more credits.

And it made me wonder:

A few years from now, will AI become what the first page of Google became?

Will “credit creep” slowly push us toward spending more and more money until accessibility starts disappearing again?

Just a question.

I don’t know.

What technology have you watched change from “this is amazing” to “wait…what happened?”