■ In this week’s Backchannel:If AI companies lock you in and knock off competition, will chatbots become enshittified? Also, Google’s last big innovation, and a guess at what an AI bubble would look like.
I recently vacationed in Italy. As one does these days, I ran my itinerary past GPT-5 for sightseeing suggestions and restaurant recommendations. The bot reported that the top choice for dinner near our hotel in Rome was a short walk down Via Margutta. It turned out to be one of the best meals I can remember. When I got home, I asked the model how it chose that restaurant, which I hesitate to reveal here in case I want a table sometime in the future.
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