AI has BROKEN the internet's traditional traffic model. Reddit’s earnings call yesterday offers a stark example. CEO Steve Huffman said: “AI mode does not drive traffic. Not for us and not to anybody as far as I know.” Search referrals to Reddit fell by more than 1 MILLION per week on average in October. RDDT shares plunged around 25% on Friday as traffic concerns and a weaker outlook overshadowed its earnings. For decades, the arrangement was straightforward where websites created content, search engines sent them visitors, and those visits generated advertising revenue, subscriptions and sales. AI has changed that exchange - A search engine can now summarize a website’s information and answer follow-up questions without the reader ever visiting the source. The content still helps answer the question but the website may never get the click. Pew’s March 2025 study found users clicked traditional search results on 8% of visits with AI summaries, compared with 15% without them. That's nearly a -50% drawdown in clicks. Google faces its own transition. Alphabet fell 12.6% on Thursday after slower Search growth and heavy AI spending cloud investors’ concerns. Its search business is still growing, but monetization has not caught up with the changing usage. More questions can now be answered while fewer visitors reach the websites supplying the information. That leaves publishers facing a fundamental challenge in finding a way to earn from content that remains useful even when the audience never arrives.