For the people who have not yet decided on a search engine. The most EU way you can go is Ecosia or Qwant as they are building their own search index.
Ecosia is my personal pick as its also aimed at planting trees and they have quite a good browser alongside it.
I get your point regarding AI and Ecosia, but this is a personal choice whether to use AI or not. I don’t think it really negates the good they are trying to do. And I expect we’ll see some breakthroughs regarding AI efficiency in the near future.