Now that Google is completely dead, it is extremely important that Kagi have a completely LLM-free mode of operation made available.
No LLM-based translations, no access to LLM-based "summaries", no "assistants".
I understand @Vlad and co need to boost LLMs for their investment portfolios, but since Kagi ostensibly has an outward appearance of marketing towards a "humanised" web we need these options if we want Kagi to at least appear to be serious about that.
I literally want 0 LLM-based options in my user experience of the product. I don't care if things can be "disabled" or if they are "opt-in"; I don't want them there in the first place. They're not useful - Google have just decided to definitively prove this, and now we're just waiting for stockholders to panic sell so we can get this shit over and done with for good.
Kagi's base product continues to outshine any competition (especially now), but it looks stupid right now.
A killswitch affirms Kagi's commitment to LLM as a side order, and opens the platform up for survival options once the bubble bursts. In a world where it's the only entree on the menu, sidelining LLMs looks really good to a lot of people.
With reduced investment in LLM products, we should also see a stable subscription price if we have enough people opting in to an LLM-free experience; the biggest reason Kagi's sub price will very likely go up in future is because of the shift of LLM providers to aggressive token-based pricing as they desperately hope to make their very first dollar since 2022. I certainly do not want to pay an increased sub cost just to subsidise access to LLMs for those who are too lazy or stupid to read things for themselves.
We're already having to pay through the nose for RAM and storage, and we're sweltering in accelerated climate change driven by mass construction of LLM datacentres; we're subsidising Huang and Musk and Altman in plenty of ways already. Let's not give up search, too.
