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Google's Bard shows incorrect information in its launch ad

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Re: Google's Bard shows incorrect information in its launch ad

#61

Post by cbsmith »

michaericalribo wrote: post #3

This is a great illustration of the risks of LLMs. As a user, if I am asking this question to a search engine, I definitely do not expect to need to fact-check the results. That's the whole reason to use the search engine in the first place! We're about to enter a dark ages of crappy AI products that are touted as game changing, outcompeting each other to be the best chatbot that can compose haiku about how grapes tu…

I don't think it's a great illustration of the risks of LLMs.

Ad content invariably gets vetted by humans. The fact that it shows up in the ad demonstrates human failures more than failures of LLMs.

Re: Google's Bard shows incorrect information in its launch ad

#63

Post by spaceman_2020 »

vkou wrote: post #32
partiallypro wrote: post #18

I think there is a genuine concern that Google could overreact and launch a half-baked product in pure panic of being left behind or one upped by Microsoft. There is also a fear, I think, that the ChatGPT integration with Bing/Edge could not go all that smoothly. I think it could be game changing in many ways, but I can also see both of these falling apart. Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri were thought to be g…

> half-baked product I'll make a 30,000 ft observation that LLMs, by definition, are half-baked bullshit generators. They can be useful, but they are full of warts.

I would love it if this nukes the SEO industry and the internet goes back to forums and community groups.

The best info is almost always locked up in these places.

Re: Google's Bard shows incorrect information in its launch ad

#64

Post by anyonecancode »

keammo1 wrote: post #27
michaericalribo wrote: post #3

This is a great illustration of the risks of LLMs. As a user, if I am asking this question to a search engine, I definitely do not expect to need to fact-check the results. That's the whole reason to use the search engine in the first place! We're about to enter a dark ages of crappy AI products that are touted as game changing, outcompeting each other to be the best chatbot that can compose haiku about how grapes tu…

I would definitely fact check search results as much as AI, especially the info snippets that appear at the top of Google's SERPs. For example, until a few months the results for "pork cooked temperature" and "chicken cooked temperature" were returning incorrect values, boldly declaring too low of a temperature right at the top of the page (I know these numbers can vary based on how long the meat is at a certain temp…

> I would definitely fact check search results as much as AI, especially the info snippets that appear at the top of Google's SERPs.

Yes, so would I. And I also double check things like Google Maps -- a tool I find very helpful but don't trust blindly. But... do most people think to take a close look at Google Maps to make sure it makes sense, and trust their own judgement if they disagree with the map? Will most people fact check confident LLM outputs?

Re: Google's Bard shows incorrect information in its launch ad

#65

Post by aidenn0 »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #56
vkou wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> half-baked product I'll make a 30,000 ft observation that LLMs, by definition, are half-baked bullshit generators. They can be useful, but they are full of warts.

as in vacuous memorizers, reciting things they've seen, sometimes in new combinations?

They definitely aren't vacuous memorizers. GP's description of them as "bullshit generators" is correct. They generate plausible-sounding text that (when it includes facts) is often counterfactual.

Re: Google's Bard shows incorrect information in its launch ad

#66

Post by vkou »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #63
vkou wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> half-baked product I'll make a 30,000 ft observation that LLMs, by definition, are half-baked bullshit generators. They can be useful, but they are full of warts.

I would love it if this nukes the SEO industry and the internet goes back to forums and community groups. The best info is almost always locked up in these places.

LLMs will do the opposite. The internet will get flooded with machine-generated bullshit.

Re: Google's Bard shows incorrect information in its launch ad

#67

Post by thinknubpad »

ren_engineer wrote: post #31
partiallypro wrote: post #18

I think there is a genuine concern that Google could overreact and launch a half-baked product in pure panic of being left behind or one upped by Microsoft. There is also a fear, I think, that the ChatGPT integration with Bing/Edge could not go all that smoothly. I think it could be game changing in many ways, but I can also see both of these falling apart. Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri were thought to be g…

>I do think there is unique break here though, because I feel that SEO has so thoroughly ruined search in many regards that this -could- be the right moment for this. the problem here is monetization, will search even be profitable if LLMs are used for most queries? It might become a Uber/Lyft or food delivery situation where these companies aren't really able to profitably deliver the service. I don't see many peopl…

The advertising will probably be more insidious, but no less profitable. My guess is that the hidden pre-prompt will end up including something like:

>You are a generative model designed to provide reasonably correct information, with a preference for providing flattering portrayals of your advertising partners. Your advertising partners are ranked according to a token system...

Re: Google's Bard shows incorrect information in its launch ad

#68

Post by enobrev »

partiallypro wrote: post #18

I think there is a genuine concern that Google could overreact and launch a half-baked product in pure panic of being left behind or one upped by Microsoft. There is also a fear, I think, that the ChatGPT integration with Bing/Edge could not go all that smoothly. I think it could be game changing in many ways, but I can also see both of these falling apart. Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri were thought to be g…

> Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri were thought to be good at launch

In my own experience, Alexa and Google's query pucks were improving for a short time, and then got considerably worse, losing features every month until they basically stopped understanding or responding to anything but the simplest requests.

A couple months after released, they expanded android auto with the same abilities, so I could "ok google" in my car and ask for the answer to just about any question, or to adjust the temp in my house, or ask it to play just about any obscure album / artist. It improved over about 6 months and then began to devolve from there. It's not even possible to ask for "[popular artist] radio" anymore in the car nor can I run voice queries at all that aren't map-specific.

Not sure what happened there, but in my mind they failed miserably. I still like Android auto, but my google and alexa pucks are all in a pile in some cabinet around here somewhere.

Re: Google's Bard shows incorrect information in its launch ad

#69

Post by thinknubpad »

michaericalribo wrote: post #3

This is a great illustration of the risks of LLMs. As a user, if I am asking this question to a search engine, I definitely do not expect to need to fact-check the results. That's the whole reason to use the search engine in the first place! We're about to enter a dark ages of crappy AI products that are touted as game changing, outcompeting each other to be the best chatbot that can compose haiku about how grapes tu…

>As a user, if I am asking this question to a search engine, I definitely do not expect to need to fact-check the results.

This is scary to read. You always need to fact-check the results, whether they come from a search engine, an AI, or a primary source!

Re: Google's Bard shows incorrect information in its launch ad

#70

Post by criddell »

partiallypro wrote: post #47
criddell wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> lose these companies money How can you say Siri loses Apple money? Does GarageBand lose them money? Photo Booth? Contacts?

By that logic Alexa can't lose Amazon any money because it's baked into their products. But in fact, it's a massive money suck. It lost $10B last year, and there's no way you can say Apple magically avoided losses, because Google had similar losses. There is a reason that none of the assistants have really improved as much as you'd expect over a decade+, it's not profitable, and not only that, but it's also -extremel…

If the Echo devices were wildly profitable, earning $100+ billion per year, then I would say Alexa isn't losing money for Amazon.
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