Sort of, but I think this was a mix of "I want to sound smart" and "I actually want to know the answer", because summarizing Google search results still required you to read the content, form an opinion, and then rephrase it.

With AI, people literally just act as token proxies and are doing it purely for internet points (upvotes, followers, etc)... I guess on some level, they're just providing a service that the "market" implicitly values. But also, in Bob Slydell's voice: "what would you say you do here?"