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Generative AI could make search harder to trust

wired.com

21–30 of 255 posts

Re: Generative AI could make search harder to trust

#21

it's almost like AI just repeats data its fed on, even incorrect data, without any real intelligence to determine if the data is correct.... /s Its not simply garbage in garbage out. There is no logic to verify and analyze the data. You are simply told what is popular in the data.

Unfortunately, that is also a sizable portion of the human population. AI definitely does it cheaper and at larger scale though!

Re: Generative AI could make search harder to trust

#22

I wonder if there will be a human information/knowledge equivalent of low-background steel (pre-WWII/nukes). Data from before a certain point won't be 'contaminated' with LLM stuff, but it'll be everywhere after that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

My sense is to avoid this have a personal blog. That being said how many people write blogs with grammerly or chatgpt these days. The temptation to use these technologies all the time is too strong for even self preservation of your own (writers) voice. My sense is that you use this technology you might be happy with the results at first but on later review you just notice something off in some sentences and maybe it…

Sometimes the value is specifically because my voice won't come through. When I'm stressed and being asked for unreasonable things at work, I know that I tend toward passive aggression. But professionally, that isn't the way I want my message to come across.

I use ChatGPT all the time to suggest how I could make sure something isn't passive aggressive. It'll point out parts that aggression and suggested changes. It can be for a short slack message, or a many paragraph message.

Re: Generative AI could make search harder to trust

#23
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are generally more cognizant of the harms caused by the tech industry than they were even a few years ago.

You can find a plethora of critical viewpoints on Hacker News and the various blogs it links to which are well cognizant of the dangers of the tech industry. The problem isn’t that Wired is critical, it’s that they’ve gone weirdly reactionary and their writing has gone so mass market dumbed down that Some Random Guy’s Blog is likely to have a better written and researched viewpoint.

They probably laid off almost everyone but some burnt out interns.

Re: Generative AI could make search harder to trust

#24

I wonder if there will be a human information/knowledge equivalent of low-background steel (pre-WWII/nukes). Data from before a certain point won't be 'contaminated' with LLM stuff, but it'll be everywhere after that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

My sense is to avoid this have a personal blog. That being said how many people write blogs with grammerly or chatgpt these days. The temptation to use these technologies all the time is too strong for even self preservation of your own (writers) voice. My sense is that you use this technology you might be happy with the results at first but on later review you just notice something off in some sentences and maybe it…

> The temptation to use these technologies all the time is too strong for even self preservation of your own (writers) voice.

I don't know about that. I have played with ChatGPT/Copilot/etc enough to know what they're capable of doing. But the thing is, I enjoy programming. I enjoy breaking down a problem and solving it with code. I enjoy crafting elegant code. So I don't use AI even though I'm fully aware it could save me hours on projects. Why? Because I enjoy those hours very much.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I suspect many writers are the same and personal blogs are their canvas. They enjoy communicating. They enjoy crafting articles. They might have AI proof-read them, but they won't let them write everything. So, to me, there is hope that personal blogs will maintain their human element, as opposed to news websites or tabloids or learning platforms.

Re: Generative AI could make search harder to trust

#25

I wonder if there will be a human information/knowledge equivalent of low-background steel (pre-WWII/nukes). Data from before a certain point won't be 'contaminated' with LLM stuff, but it'll be everywhere after that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

There will be a web of trust, with a valuation of nodes by trustworthyness. And people will get only one id for this. Ones name is ones value and a reputation will be a hard earned thing again.

Re: Generative AI could make search harder to trust

#27

I wonder if there will be a human information/knowledge equivalent of low-background steel (pre-WWII/nukes). Data from before a certain point won't be 'contaminated' with LLM stuff, but it'll be everywhere after that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

There will be a web of trust, with a valuation of nodes by trustworthyness. And people will get only one id for this. Ones name is ones value and a reputation will be a hard earned thing again.

This was how the "internet" functions in the book "Ender's Game".

There is a small sub-plot about how he had to give a fake persona credibility on the untrusted network in order to be able to leverage a creating a fake account on the trusted network.

Re: Generative AI could make search harder to trust

#28
post #21

it's almost like AI just repeats data its fed on, even incorrect data, without any real intelligence to determine if the data is correct.... /s Its not simply garbage in garbage out. There is no logic to verify and analyze the data. You are simply told what is popular in the data.

Unfortunately, that is also a sizable portion of the human population. AI definitely does it cheaper and at larger scale though!

I've definitely met a lot of people who fail the GPT test.

Re: Generative AI could make search harder to trust

#29
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My sense is to avoid this have a personal blog. That being said how many people write blogs with grammerly or chatgpt these days. The temptation to use these technologies all the time is too strong for even self preservation of your own (writers) voice. My sense is that you use this technology you might be happy with the results at first but on later review you just notice something off in some sentences and maybe it…

> The temptation to use these technologies all the time is too strong for even self preservation of your own (writers) voice. I don't know about that. I have played with ChatGPT/Copilot/etc enough to know what they're capable of doing. But the thing is, I enjoy programming. I enjoy breaking down a problem and solving it with code. I enjoy crafting elegant code. So I don't use AI even though I'm fully aware it could s…

Agree. I've never even looked at any of these AI tools. I enjoy the process and the challenge of programming, and the rewards of doing it well. I have no desire for someone or something else to write code for me.

Re: Generative AI could make search harder to trust

#30

it's almost like AI just repeats data its fed on, even incorrect data, without any real intelligence to determine if the data is correct.... /s Its not simply garbage in garbage out. There is no logic to verify and analyze the data. You are simply told what is popular in the data.

AI doesn't "just" repeat data. You can feed a LLM 100% fact-checked data and it'll still hallucinate.

It's a core problem with generative AI and it can't be solved with better data.

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