Based on comments and videos that I’ve seen on YouTube. There seems to be serious concern about how AI will affect people’s lives. From video games to Christianity, I’ve been seeing this calling for “Physical” media. Even in a recent Photics.TV poll (YouTube), people preferred physical books to digital books. It was roughly nine to one in favor of physical. Well good news! The Photics Web Guide has launched. It’s a physical book.
Now the book moves into the marketing phase. I was testing the Search Engine Optimization, which is strange in the era of AI. Search Engines are becoming chatbots. So, I asked “What’s new with Photics.TV?”. The information seemed slightly behind the latest info. That’s when I wondered, “Does it even know if my book launched?”
No! It did not!
Brave — “As of August 14, 2026, a specific release date for ‘The Photics Web Guide’ has not been publicly announced. The project was confirmed as the top priority for 2026 in the “2026 New Year’s Resolutions” post, with the creator stating the book “must be completed” this year.”
DuckDuckGo — “’The Photics Web Guide’ is set to be released imminently. While an exact date is not specified, it is expected to be available very soon.”
The duck did have a nice summary of the book… “The book covers web design and development, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and aims to help both beginners and professionals.” It also mentioned “Practical examples for web projects”, “Guidance on creating Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)” and “Historical insights into web development”.
It’s fascinating watching AI summarize what I’ve been doing with Photics. It sounds so nice and professional. Yet, an important fact was missed — the book is available. It wasn’t just DuckDuckGo or Brave, even Google missed on the launch.
Google — “An exact public release date has not been announced, but author Michael Garofalo states that the launch of The Photics Web Guide is imminent. Updates on Photics.com indicate that the book is in its final stages of completion.”
Interestingly, Google added a suggestion, “If you want, I can check for updates on the Photics Site News or let you know when specific preorder links go live.”
Three different search engine AIs couldn’t make the connection. This was especially surprising since Google and DuckDuckGo returned the link to Lulu… https://www.lulu.com/shop/michael-garofalo/photics-web-guide/hardcover/product-95782d9.html …when searching directly for the name of the book. (Brave did not list the link in the first page of results.)
So, what does this mean? 🤔
Well, I’m concerned. A lot of money is pouring into AI, but is humanity truly benefitting? Let’s go back to before the Internet was popular. It’s something briefly mentioned in the book — Yellow / White Pages. Before the Internet, these big books were delivered to people’s houses. That’s how you could find someone’s phone number or a local business. Clearly, this is an example of where going digital is better. If I search for pizza or plumber in my area, the Internet contains way more information (reviews, contact info, maps, website) and that information is delivered instantly.
But here, is AI truly improving search? In this example, clearly not. If I was looking for the “Photics Web Guide”, a traditional web search was way more effective. Is AI worth the RAM shortages, the higher energy costs, and the problems caused by massive data centers?
When I first learned of the Internet, I wondered what was the point. About a year later, my career changed. I became a “webmaster”. It was apparent that the Internet was useful. But with AI, there’s a lot of apprehension. It’s not clear if this technology is a benefit to humanity.
I suppose the comparison is the system seller for a game console… like Mario for Nintendo or Sonic on the Sega Genesis. Several years into the AI revolution, I’m still wondering what I can do with AI that I couldn’t do before. I did use Apple’s proofreading tool to check the Photics Web Guide, but AI generated content was not used. People don’t like it. Worse, people hate it!
As an example, Image Playground is a fun tool. The results look pretty good. Yet, if I used it to create a YouTube thumbnail image or as an image post, there was instant feedback — negative feedback. That gets noticed when the comments on Photics.TV are often quite encouraging.
That’s the big question right now — is the money being spent in AI worth the return?
If the goal is to use AI to improve people’s lives, I’m not seeing it, not so far. If anything, innovation seems to be moving slower. There was a certain energy when the Internet was new, when smartphones and apps were new. Now, there’s this malaise in tech. Too many people seem to dread AI. If that’s how people feel about it, then how is it supposed to make money? Because right now, it feels like tech communism. The content creators have their work assimilated like the Borg in Star Trek, often with no compensation, while AI companies try to figure out a way to sell it back to us. It’s quite dystopian.