people used to say this about search engines and web browsers, as well
regardless, eventually Google became the universal default for both. When it comes to software, the average person doesn't shop around for the technologically optimal choice, they just use what everyone else is using.
AI (that is, plain chat) is always going to be free to use as well. Google and Microsoft are going to keep it that way. And make the money back via ads.
That's why ChatGPT still has a free option. If they didn't, they would lose a billion users overnight to Gemini.
my point is today there is no clear winner. opus, gpt 5.4 and gemini have different strengths. google search was running circles around competition in basically all use cases.
