The analogue version was academic institutions that paid gifted people with intelligence to have research assistants that went to the library. But we defunded that model of natural intelligence because it wasn't equitable for the ungifted.
As an operation, it's a big mechanical turk that is sped up with huge amounts of server spend. The utility of any output is a lossy derivative of curated knowledge and IP, trained and censored by some of the poorest people on the planet.