Having dealt with many family members just like this, I can tell you they certainly can use Google for search, they just don't want to. When forced to they use it fine.
If I were to guess, a lot of people, particularly older people, see computer use outside the web browser as an amateur might a chop-saw; a dangerous tool not to be used by inexperienced hands, so an AI that can also directly do the tasks for them might solve that problem (assuming it came preinstalled or someone else did that for them). Though then comes the question of whether they'd be willing to pay for it
Plus hallucinations. Most "regular people" questions aren't inherently easy to verify. And when regular people do have to verify the answers, the value of "AI" drops like a rock.
> Having dealt with many family members just like this, I can tell you they certainly can use Google for search, they just don't want to. When forced to they use it fine.
Exactly! I noticed this when I moved out of my parents' house, when suddenly my mom became an electronics whiz who can hook up VCRs and TVs just fine. I always thought I was the smart person in the house, but now I realize I was just taken advantage of.
'Taken advantage of' is very negative framing. Maybe it was just a normal instance of specialization of labor!