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AI chatbots are not a replacement for search engines

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Re: AI chatbots are not a replacement for search engines

#71

Post by anothernewdude »

gukov wrote: post #22

The way I see it: - Today's search engines will give you links to millions of documents - ChatGPT, if asked correctly, will instead generate one perfect document based on millions of the documents To me, that's a clear evolution of the search engine, especially with all the SEO & ad spam that's plaguing Google and others currently. I wasn't ready to pay a monthly fee for an ad-free Google. I am ready to pay for somet…

I'll take the links many times over a generated document.

I can't buy from a storefront generated by ChatGPT. I can't cite a document written by ChatGPT, I can't trust news generated by ChatGPT, I can't comment on a forum generated by ChatGPT, I can't watch videos that ChatGPT describes, the recipes ChatGPT creates may not be possible to cook, and will probably still contain a fake life story before it.

Re: AI chatbots are not a replacement for search engines

#72

Post by permo-w »

mc32 wrote: post #32

The big drawback chatGPT has is that on many topics it walks on eggshells. It can’t give me a direct answer. It couches the answers in nonsensical caveats. Adding stilted context that really does not add value to an answer and actually makes the search more tedious. If I ask it the male female breakdown for crime statistics it begins to get defensive and gives me general answers. I can prod it to finally give me gove…

you can say a lot about Google, but at least they’ve never sat down and said “no more porn”, or blocked specific words from being searched, which is a little surprising actually. I’m sure bigger advertisers will have broached the subject on many occasions

Re: AI chatbots are not a replacement for search engines

#73

Post by charcircuit »

n0tth3dro1ds wrote: post #4

I agree that chat bots aren’t the proper modality for replacing search. So what? Currently, Google search results stink. ChatGPT results are way better in a number of domains. Does it need to be a chat bot? No. But Google still stinks now. I’ll take anything that can just find the correct information.

How does Google stink? I've never had an issue with. What query does it struggle with?

Re: AI chatbots are not a replacement for search engines

#74

Post by [deleted] »

nomel wrote: post #8
cactusplant7374 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think they do. At least not in a safe way. The AI doesn’t understand meaning or the underlying material and concepts. I’m sure filters will be put into a pipeline but it will never be as good as letting the human sniff out the correct answers.

Are we talking about chat bots, or their implementations in 2022?

[deleted]

Re: AI chatbots are not a replacement for search engines

#76

Post by boredemployee »

RBerenguel wrote: post #63
WJW wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kills it for me (so far, perhaps they can fix it in the future) is that there is no way to know if you've actually asked ChatGPT correctly and it has given you a perfect document with the answer you seek, or if your question was slightly off and it has given a wrong answer, or even if your question was correct but it still confidently gives the wrong answer. It famously asserted numbers like 42 were prime early…

Or you have asked correctly (or not, that's hard to tell from the onset) and has given you a non-factual answer. For example, I asked ChatGPT for what would be the best introductory book for a subject (added some more conditions to make it pretty clear-cut). It recommended me a book that sounded reasonable in title, with existing authors in the field… but the book didn't exist, at all.

Yes. It can even give name of research papers that never existed

Re: AI chatbots are not a replacement for search engines

#77

Post by forrest2 »

EGreg wrote: post #69
forrest2 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is flywheel issue with generative search: content producers, information curators or outlets, etc need to get paid. People are okay-ish with Google in part because it drives traffic and traffic can be profitable. Fancy features that snatch website content and show them in Google's result pages are already not appreciated by indexed websites. If generative search becomes the dominant interface, we will eventuall…

Why just public info stagnation? It will be dwarfed by believable content generated by swarms of internet bots. Once a stable diffusion like open source GPT-3 appears, it will be used to create fake news all the time. Like imagine 70 different outlets all with relatively large clout on social networks suddenly announce that Elon Musk is running for president. Nevermind that he wasn’t born in the USA… somehow mysterio…

One could argue that what you're describing is one of those alternative business models. You don't care if someone comes to your page anymore for ads if the scraped page is the ad.

I'm sad about what I think the stable equilibrium looks like for internet vs AI, and I hope there are some platforms that are able to put in the good fight to keep the internet awesome.

The internet is such an amazing public good and has moved technology forward at such an insane pace. It'd be depressing to explain to my grandkids that you used to be able to learn anything on the internet without subscribing to the X platform or Y curated channel.

Re: AI chatbots are not a replacement for search engines

#78

Post by ppeetteerr »

The question is not whether AI will generate the right answers, but whether it will generate better answers than a search engine. Given that search results are dominated by ad-supported websites, maybe an AI results, which are 99% accurate, will be better than whoever spend the most on ad words.

Re: AI chatbots are not a replacement for search engines

#79

Post by Geee »

For me, ChatGPT has already replaced Google for most queries, so the point is moot.

Even if ChatGPT is flawed, it's still way better than Google. Using Google feels stupid; trying different search terms and clicking through dozens of websites with cookie popups and skimming all the bloated content for an answer which might be close to something you're looking for. ChatGPT gives the answer instantly.

I don't believe there's any future for Google (and Google-optimized websites).

Re: AI chatbots are not a replacement for search engines

#80

Post by spullara »

Geee wrote: post #79

For me, ChatGPT has already replaced Google for most queries, so the point is moot. Even if ChatGPT is flawed, it's still way better than Google. Using Google feels stupid; trying different search terms and clicking through dozens of websites with cookie popups and skimming all the bloated content for an answer which might be close to something you're looking for. ChatGPT gives the answer instantly. I don't believe t…

Those queries are mostly loss leaders for Google.
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