Again, what am I missing?

I think it's a matter of emphasis. In the short term I doubt AI is going to 'eat Google's lunch', but you don't have to kill a company to damage it. Look at what Apple's simple change in 'sharing' wrought with Facebook, the stock cratered almost 75%. (Irrationally, in my view, Facebook still takes in gobs of cash - more than all four of the major television networks, for example.) [Yes, there are other issues, like Zuck's obsession with his goofy headset - but from $400 to $100? Really?]

But say AI does find a way to 'naturalize' search (and more to the point, suppose it's not Google that finds it and suppresses it). Amazon has already found a way to steal those ad dollars that had been flowing to Google. It's small potatoes in the scheme of things, but he, $18B here, $18B there, pretty soon it's real money. If (say) Microsoft's AI somehow encroaches on Google, and don't ask me how, if I knew I'd be getting the big bucks, they can run it 'just because', not even as a money maker - but to the detriment of Google, a thorn in their Bing side since forever. It would be a nice portfolio enhancement even at break even.

(The change in Apple's Privacy rules didn't help Apple nearly as much as it hurt Facebook, for instance.)

OK, I'm scattered here, but I'm just saying it doesn't have to be linear. Weird stuff happens. (Maybe I need an AI bot to help me organize my thoughts! LOL.)