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Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

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Re: Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

#191

Post by beejiu »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #150
beejiu wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps a more common question: "How many calories do men need to lose weight?" Google AI responded: "To lose weight, men typically need to reduce their daily calorie intake by 1,500 - 1,800 calories" Which is obviously dangerous advice. IMO Google AI overviews should not show up for anything (a) medical or (b) numerical. LLMs just aren't safe enough yet.

I don't see the problem with the answer, and the question is already garbage. Plus, the LLM hedges its advice with precautions. I get a pretty good summary when I paste the question into Google. It comes up with a ballpark but also gives precautions and info on how to estimate what caloric restriction makes sense for you within the first 3 sentences. And all in a format someone is likely to read instead of clicking o…

The basic problem is it says reduce "by 1,500 - 1,800" rather than "to 1,500 - 1,800" (not that that answer is much better). Yes, it's a garbage question, but the first answer is unsafe in all circumstances. The simplest solution here is to show nothing.

Re: Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

#192

Post by baxtr »

Today I had a better experience with Google than with ChatGPT.

I started with chat and asked why I couldn’t change the passcode on a kid's device.

I tried 3 answers. None worked.

So I google. First hit is an Apple forum with the exact problem. Solved.

Re: Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

#193

Post by throwawa14223 »

georgeplusplus wrote: post #139

I think I’ve had such a bad experience with openAIs charGPT answering a question falsely and sounding very convincing that I skip the AI overview or double check to confirm it’s correct. Am I mad?

In my experience that's not limited to chatGPT, all of the LLM tools seem worthless to me.

Re: Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

#194

Post by ajross »

warner25 wrote: post #43
binkHN wrote: post #7

> Enter 2024 with AI. The top 20% of search results are a wall of text from AI... I'll be the contrarian here and say I actually like Google's AI Overview? For the first time in a long time, I can search for an answer to a question and, instead of getting annoying ads and SEO-optimized uselessness, I actually get an answer. Google is finally useful again. That said, once Google screws with this and starts making sear…

But "search" and "getting an answer to a question" are two different things, aren't they? I realize that the trend has been going this way for a long time - probably since Ask Jeeves started blurring the line - and this is indeed how a lot of people try / want to use search engines, but still... I wish that Google (and competitors) would have separate pages for something like "Ask Google" vs. traditional search (wher…

> But "search" and "getting an answer to a question" are two different things, aren't they?

Google exists, as both a successful enterprise and as a verb, precisely because to most people they are exactly the same thing.

No, this is wrong. People ask what they want to know. Sometimes the best answer is a link. Sometimes it's just an answer. The ability to intuit which is best is what makes products in this space worth making.

Re: Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

#195

Post by jostmey »

the_snooze wrote: post #68
darknavi wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they very much are two different things. I loath products like Facebook, Messenger, Google Photos, etc. are turning their traditional "search" page/feature into a one-stop AI slop shop. All I want to do is find a specific photo album by name.

They're perfectly capable of implementing all the same search operators as 1990s Yahoo and 2000s Google. It's a solved problem. The issue is that they don't want to. They'd rather be a middleman offering you "useful recommendations" (that they or may not sell to the highest bidder) instead of offering you value.

Agreed. So many times I have to put Wikipedia or Reddit behind my search to get anything useful out of google. So it can work. Google is clearly prioritizing junk over value

Re: Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

#196

Post by [deleted] »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #65
wwweston wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libraries and librarians are starting to seem very relevant again. As are journalistic institutions.

Journalistic institutions have been requiring so much fact-checking, cross referencing and research lately it's a full time job to get informed. Whenever I read or hear anything from the medias now, I'm now always asking myself "what are their political inclinations? who is owning them ? what do they want me to believe? how much of a blind spot do they got ? how lazy or ignorant they are in that context ? etc." They…

[deleted]

Re: Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

#197

Post by whimsicalism »

binkHN wrote: post #7

> Enter 2024 with AI. The top 20% of search results are a wall of text from AI... I'll be the contrarian here and say I actually like Google's AI Overview? For the first time in a long time, I can search for an answer to a question and, instead of getting annoying ads and SEO-optimized uselessness, I actually get an answer. Google is finally useful again. That said, once Google screws with this and starts making sear…

if google’s AI overview were as smart as 4o, i would like it a lot more.

Re: Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

#198

Post by gr4vityWall »

warner25 wrote: post #43
binkHN wrote: post #7

> Enter 2024 with AI. The top 20% of search results are a wall of text from AI... I'll be the contrarian here and say I actually like Google's AI Overview? For the first time in a long time, I can search for an answer to a question and, instead of getting annoying ads and SEO-optimized uselessness, I actually get an answer. Google is finally useful again. That said, once Google screws with this and starts making sear…

But "search" and "getting an answer to a question" are two different things, aren't they? I realize that the trend has been going this way for a long time - probably since Ask Jeeves started blurring the line - and this is indeed how a lot of people try / want to use search engines, but still... I wish that Google (and competitors) would have separate pages for something like "Ask Google" vs. traditional search (wher…

> I've been trying hard to break my 10 year-old of the habit of just typing questions into search engines

Honest question: why?

I understand not wanting to use Google (the search engine) or not wanting to support Google (the company). But I don't see with the issue with just looking up questions.

I'm 10 years younger than you, and I've been reaching for search engines first since I was 7, I think. Basically since I learned how to turn the computer on and open a web browser.

Re: Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

#199

Post by geertj »

potsandpans wrote: post #42

Just sharing an anecdote: I was searching for a quote that I'd heard in an audiobook the other day. I just had the general paraphrase, and didn't feel like scanning through the chapters to go find it. This was a somewhat obscure source. Google had just straight garbage for me. The quote was political in nature, and I felt like the results were fighting general tone-policing filters and were tuned for recent events. o…

Piling on, but I wanted to find a song I had once heard when I was a kid. I did not know the exact lyrics, just that it was woman talking about her husband leaving for space. I had tried to find the song using regular search engines multiple times over the years. Eerily (a little over a year ago, using GPT3.5), I was able to find the song within about 15 minutes of prompting with various pieces of information including tone, topic, and rough year I heard the song. (The song was "Clouds across the moon" from the Rah band.)

Re: Google's Results Are Infested, Open AI Is Using Their Playbook from the 2000s

#200

Post by griomnib »

croes wrote: post #126
warner25 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But "search" and "getting an answer to a question" are two different things, aren't they? I realize that the trend has been going this way for a long time - probably since Ask Jeeves started blurring the line - and this is indeed how a lot of people try / want to use search engines, but still... I wish that Google (and competitors) would have separate pages for something like "Ask Google" vs. traditional search (wher…

It want stay long. You are now in the pre ad phase. As soon as the ads are integrated the answers will become worse.

They have something Google never had: a paid tier.

There are plenty of revenue models aside from ads.

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