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ChatGPT won’t replace search engines any time soon

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Re: ChatGPT won’t replace search engines any time soon

#91
post #6

...But ChatGPT's successors just might . I, for one, look forward to a future in which I can ask a digital assistant to find and summarize information on anything: "Computer, please find out how GPS works and explain it to me like I'm five years old." "Computer, what are the latest Covid-19 infection stats in my city?" "Computer, who is Claude Shannon and why is he important?" "Computer, what are the top three storie…

Agree. ChatGPT is how I imagined the internet would be back in the 90s (without having the foggiest clue how it might get there). Your questions are similar to the types of searches that people really want but have to translate to 'GPS simple explanation' or 'COVID in this year' while hoping for a set of relevant pages in the Google return.

I've gotten it to fail on some word problems, but even then it was impressive to see it try to come up with a solution. More humorous were requests like 'Create a post for ycombinator about ChatGPT in the style of Chris Farley'. It's surprising and quite welcome that it even attempts that.

Re: ChatGPT won’t replace search engines any time soon

#92
post #52
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is, if you can blindly trust the answers.. if it could provide the top sources for the information so I could fact-check it if needed, it would work

We're going to have a generation of people that are cock sure about things because ... ai, but they won't actually know jack shift. It sort of happened with google. People can figure something out but they don't systematically get things. Shallow explanation. Goldfish attention span

I think that assumes AI makes any difference to the self-certainly of humans.

My mother was into all kinds of new age and supernatural stuff. You may think you can see where this anecdote is leading, and oh boy I could go there, but instead prepare for a twist! One of the stories she had was a client saying "It is not possible, Susan, it is not possible that there are beings out there that are cleverer than what we is".

Re: ChatGPT won’t replace search engines any time soon

#93
They might not replace them, but it fulfills a role that Google could do previously.

Try to find out what type of a spring is in a spring clamp using google? "What type of a spring is in a spring clamp?" Or use whatever query you want. The top 10 results won't tell me the answer.

Ask ChatGPT. It'll tell you (spoiler: it's a tension spring or a torsion spring. It's not a coil spring.)

8 out of 10 Google results are trying to sell me spring clamps. Seriously Google, do you not see that your search engine is FUBAR?

Re: ChatGPT won’t replace search engines any time soon

#94
post #84
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bill is already largely footed by MS probably. OpenAI and MS are a partnership and they run on azure cloud.

Of course- it makes sense to run ChatGPT free now (reminded that it's an experiment) for training & betatesting. But running it even larger, and on a search engine ? It's a magnitude of difference imo, and totally different than a short-time bill for an experiment.

They could go after the really expensive keywords and do stuff there. I'm just not sure how they'd make more money from that stuff.

Re: ChatGPT won’t replace search engines any time soon

#95
post #84
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bill is already largely footed by MS probably. OpenAI and MS are a partnership and they run on azure cloud.

Of course- it makes sense to run ChatGPT free now (reminded that it's an experiment) for training & betatesting. But running it even larger, and on a search engine ? It's a magnitude of difference imo, and totally different than a short-time bill for an experiment.

Who gives a shit how much it costs. The value is massive and 10x better than Google results. Are you comprehending what that means? After competing with Google for over 10 years with nothing to show for it, Microsoft is drooling over this technology.

Re: ChatGPT won’t replace search engines any time soon

#96

Bing announced their ChatGPT deal the next day: https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/04/microsoft_openai_chat...

They havent "announced" anything. It would make cost-per-query and latency go through the roof, so its HIGHLY unlikely.

MS would run their own instance. Can you imagine how much money they're willing to spend to dethrone Google?

Re: ChatGPT won’t replace search engines any time soon

#98
These feel like really strange criticisms, since they're just so straightforward to resolve.

Can't figure out typos? That's a solved problem. Doesn't understand all questions correctly? It's going to get much better at that very, very quickly. Chat results don't give context? You can put AI search results in whatever UI you want.

Not shocking to hear a search company say AI won't disrupt search, but if this is the best they can do, I feel pretty confident saying that AI will disrupt search very soon.

Re: ChatGPT won’t replace search engines any time soon

#99
This feels like what a company that hasn't accepted the future would say. Yes, ChatGPT doesn't do exactly what Google does. Can it be augmented by well understood search retrieval engines to generate a much better response? I think for a lot of cases that seems to be undoubtedly true.

Re: ChatGPT won’t replace search engines any time soon

#100
Agreed that chat-based search won't replace traditional search any time soon. BUT even in this article, the author mentions that hybrid semantic search is actively being integrated into Algolia.

Both have pros & cons and the best solutions over the coming years will be hybrids.

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