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AI assisted search-based research works now

simonwillison.net

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Re: AI assisted search-based research works now

#61

Post by pton_xd »

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #59
CSMastermind wrote: post #57

The various deep research products don't work well for me. For example I asked these tools yesterday, "How many unique NFL players were on the roster for at least one regular season game during the 2024 season? I'd like the specific number not a general estimate." I as a human know how to find this information. The game day rosters for many NFL teams are available on many sites. It would be tedious but possible for m…

This is just a bad match to the capabilities. What you are actually looking for is analysis, similar in nature to what a data scientist may do. The deep research capabilities are much better suited to more qualitative research / aggregation.

> The deep research capabilities are much better suited to more qualitative research / aggregation.

Unfortunately sentiment analysis like "Tell me how you feel about how many players the NFL has" is just way less useful than: "Tell me how many players the NFL has."

Re: AI assisted search-based research works now

#62

Post by lucyjojo »

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #59
CSMastermind wrote: post #57

The various deep research products don't work well for me. For example I asked these tools yesterday, "How many unique NFL players were on the roster for at least one regular season game during the 2024 season? I'd like the specific number not a general estimate." I as a human know how to find this information. The game day rosters for many NFL teams are available on many sites. It would be tedious but possible for m…

This is just a bad match to the capabilities. What you are actually looking for is analysis, similar in nature to what a data scientist may do. The deep research capabilities are much better suited to more qualitative research / aggregation.

First person that makes a good exact aggregation AI will make so much money...

Precise aggregation is what so many juniors do in so many fields of work it's not even funny...

Re: AI assisted search-based research works now

#63

Post by ilrwbwrkhv »

intended wrote: post #12

I find that these conversations on HN end up covering similar positions constantly. I believe that most positions are resolved if 1) you accept that these are fundamentally narrative tools. They build stories, In whatever style you wish. Stories of code, stories of project reports. Stories or conversations. 2) this is balanced by the idea that the core of everything in our shared information economy is Verification.…

Yup succinct summarization of the current state. This works across domains from research to software engineering.

Re: AI assisted search-based research works now

#64

Post by neom »

CSMastermind wrote: post #57

The various deep research products don't work well for me. For example I asked these tools yesterday, "How many unique NFL players were on the roster for at least one regular season game during the 2024 season? I'd like the specific number not a general estimate." I as a human know how to find this information. The game day rosters for many NFL teams are available on many sites. It would be tedious but possible for m…

Is it accurate that there are 544 rosters? If so, even at 2 minutes a roster isn't that days of work, even if you coded something? How would you go about completing this task in 1 hour as a human? (also chatgpt 4.1 gave me 2,503 and it said it used the NFL 2024 fact book)

Re: AI assisted search-based research works now

#65

Post by twic »

qwertox wrote: post #5

I feel like the benefit which AI gives us programmers is limited. They can be extremely advanced, accelerative and helpful assistants, but we're limited to just that: architecting and developing software. Biologists, mathematicians, physicists, philosophers and the like seem to have an open-ended benefit from the research which AI is now starting to enable. I kind of envy them. Unless one moves into AI research?

Until AI can work a micropipette, it's going to be of fairly marginal use to biologists.

Re: AI assisted search-based research works now

#66

Post by paulsutter »

CSMastermind wrote: post #57

The various deep research products don't work well for me. For example I asked these tools yesterday, "How many unique NFL players were on the roster for at least one regular season game during the 2024 season? I'd like the specific number not a general estimate." I as a human know how to find this information. The game day rosters for many NFL teams are available on many sites. It would be tedious but possible for m…

I bet these models could create a python program that does this

Re: AI assisted search-based research works now

#67

Post by Retric »

paulsutter wrote: post #66
CSMastermind wrote: post #57

The various deep research products don't work well for me. For example I asked these tools yesterday, "How many unique NFL players were on the roster for at least one regular season game during the 2024 season? I'd like the specific number not a general estimate." I as a human know how to find this information. The game day rosters for many NFL teams are available on many sites. It would be tedious but possible for m…

I bet these models could create a python program that does this

Maybe eventually, but I bet it’s not going to work with less than 30 minutes of effort on your part.

If “It might take an hour of my time.” to get the correct answer then there’s a lower bond for trying a shortcut that might not work.

Re: AI assisted search-based research works now

#70

Post by sublimefire »

I do prefer tools like GPT researcher where you are in control over sources and search engines. Sometimes you just need to use arxiv, sometimes mix research with the docs you have. Sometimes you want to use different models. I believe the future is in choosing what you need for the specific task at that moment, eg 3d model generation mixed with something else, and this all requires some sort of new “OS” level application to run from.

Individual model vendors cannot do such a product as they are biased towards their own model, they would not allow you to choose models from competitors.

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