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Google changes its search box

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Re: Google changes its search box

#512
post #442

I'm old enough to remember when "Google" was something that ended conversations. People — myself included — would literally say "Google it," the facts would be located, and that was that. Now that Google wants to be the conversation, I'm worried there will no longer be a bias-free source of information for the masses. This is all new, so I may be a bit hyperbolic, but the reason OpenAI introducing ads bothers me is t…

Google is not bias-free, and has not been for a long time.

never, actually - any ranking algorithm is inherently biased because it ranks

Re: Google changes its search box

#514
post #460
post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is Google's AI results get even simple factual questions wrong all the time. Earlier today, I searched "pixel 10 wifi 7" because I was confused that GSMArena showed my Pixel 8 supports Wifi 7, but the Pixel 10 only Wifi 6. Gemini confidently claimed that the Pixel 10 does support Wifi 7 -- but that's not true at all. Only the Pixel 10 _Pro_ supports it, as I discovered when actually reading the non-AI sea…

Ok, fair. Hard to understand why it would get that wrong.

The simple answer is that these systems are very bad at telling the truth reliably.

Re: Google changes its search box

#515
post #460
post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is Google's AI results get even simple factual questions wrong all the time. Earlier today, I searched "pixel 10 wifi 7" because I was confused that GSMArena showed my Pixel 8 supports Wifi 7, but the Pixel 10 only Wifi 6. Gemini confidently claimed that the Pixel 10 does support Wifi 7 -- but that's not true at all. Only the Pixel 10 _Pro_ supports it, as I discovered when actually reading the non-AI sea…

Ok, fair. Hard to understand why it would get that wrong.

It somehow seems to interpret whatever sources it's grepping as the exact opposite of what those sources say fairly often. I've lost track of how many times I've clicked on the sources it cites, and every single one is in agreement, but the AI claims the opposite.

Re: Google changes its search box

#516

I'm old enough to remember when "Google" was something that ended conversations. People — myself included — would literally say "Google it," the facts would be located, and that was that. Now that Google wants to be the conversation, I'm worried there will no longer be a bias-free source of information for the masses. This is all new, so I may be a bit hyperbolic, but the reason OpenAI introducing ads bothers me is t…

I agree with the sentiment, but native ads i.e. blogs, reviews, articles, etc. that do their best to hide that they’re a sponsored product review have been around for a long time. Admittedly, LLMs WILL make it even more difficult to discern the difference.

Re: Google changes its search box

#517

What scares me about this new AI mode thingy is that every answer sounds like a systematic literature review, but only for the results. For example, if I look for users feedback about a specific product, it says "People think that..., but also that...; It's important to notice that some people ..." where with 'people' it means just a random comment on a random website just because it thought it was a good contributio…

I ran into one that kept referencing "people", but then I found that it was a single Reddit thread from a couple of years ago about a relatively small and obscure foreign city with 2 replies.

Re: Google changes its search box

#518
post #460
post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is Google's AI results get even simple factual questions wrong all the time. Earlier today, I searched "pixel 10 wifi 7" because I was confused that GSMArena showed my Pixel 8 supports Wifi 7, but the Pixel 10 only Wifi 6. Gemini confidently claimed that the Pixel 10 does support Wifi 7 -- but that's not true at all. Only the Pixel 10 _Pro_ supports it, as I discovered when actually reading the non-AI sea…

Ok, fair. Hard to understand why it would get that wrong.

Because LLMs aren't sentient, they don't draw on facts, and they don't have nuance. The answer given is similar to answers you might expect to see for similar questions.

It's really amazing we can make machines do that, and it's really depressing that we think a stochastic bullshit machine is going to give us something we can rely on.

Re: Google changes its search box

#519
post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you ask. It's pretty easy to get wrong information. e.g. search for "how do you make money with options" Google's AI says "When you buy a Call, you are betting the stock price will go up. When you buy a Put, you are betting it will go down." Wrong right off the bat, because it ingested a whole bunch of get-rich-quick bull on the internet. The correct version is that if you buy a call you are betting t…

I tried this search. It gave a write up about buying and selling options, noting that the price of the stock had to move significantly, not just go up or down. It also talked about vertical spreads and iron condors. It touches on delta, theta, and volatility and their impacts, as well as leverage risk and potential uncapped risk. While I agree that AI gets things wrong a lot, and someone should read significantly mor…

They probably update these answers offline. I tried "how do you profit from options" and got:

> Call Options: You buy these when you believe a stock's price will go up. If the stock rises past your strike price, the option's value increases, allowing you to sell it for a profit or exercise it to buy the stock at a discount.

> Put Options: You buy these when you believe a stock's price will go down. If the stock falls below your strike price, you profit.

Which leaves me wondering if changing the search textually busts some cache that they update using a slower/smarter model.

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