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So if you opt in then your website won't get clicks -> no ad revenue for you since google will "steal" the clicks via their summarization. And if you opt out google will eventually just push you down.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I try to search up a topic on YouTube, the list of search results eventually STOP showing videos matching my criteria and instead show 10 videos in a row labeled "People also watched" that is unrelated to my search. It's one thing to get recommendations in a place where recommendations are appropriate, and the dangers of the feedback loop you are talking about. It's another thing entirely to actively push it in…
> results eventually STOP showing videos matching my criteria How long is that typical list? How often do you pick the things at the bottom of that list vs the results near the top?
Hard pass. I don't want Google, or even a trustworthy neutral party, to decide my view of the world. (Compromised as it may be already.) We're all unique and unpredictable. In a given article, a random sentence or point considered throwaway by most people and algorithms could turn out to be meaningful to me. I've been trained not to even trust the basic facts they pull of out content like movie showtimes or whatever.…
It’s summarizing. That is by its very nature a reduction of an article to certain bias elements. It’s not rocket science or some evil magic. Jeeze you’d think HackerNews never used anything that wasn’t a home brew open source libertarian approved product if you believed the comments here.
It can be. Summarizing process can be tweaked very slightly to give more space to certain POVs, make them sound more reliable than others via word choice etc. The subtlety can make it undetectable, yet it can have strong effects when applied on mass scale.
I don't know how this will look like, but it is a very powerful technology to sway the public opinion one way or another.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Solution: dont use google.
Of course I can, and do, avoid Google. That's an individual solution. I'm interested in a world that's as good as possible not only for me, but for the other people too. Most people around still use Google. They might find this new feature useful and start using it, and possibly suffer this bias. Not only they may get manipulated individually, but it can have broader consequences, even to those avoiding the feature.…
If the Snowden revelations did anything is to show that people ultimately don't care about being exploited, as long as they can continue to enjoy technology. Trading convenience for privacy is not something most people would even consider.
Things will quickly spiral out of control once everyone has their personal AI assistant, that is controlled by a major corporation with government ties. It's the wet dream of any aspiring autocrat, and we're building that future.
Here we are, on a tech forum among people who work at these companies, and all we can do is type at the void. These companies continue to build products that on the surface seem enticing and useful, which is surely how they also pitch it internally so engineers that build it have a clear conscience, yet lead us to a further breakdown of society in ways we haven't imagined yet.
I'm not sure if all this is over the top, doom and gloom thinking on my part, but it feels frustrating to be part of this industry, seeing how it's tearing apart society, and having the concerns ignored and dismissed by both users and companies alike.
Ironically, articles got pointlessly long because of Google. Everyone stretches their content because long form ranks better. A few hours ago I wanted to know the difference between a typhoon and a hurricane. Here is the answer: they're the same thing, just in a different ocean. I clicked three or four articles and had to read for a few minutes to get to that answer. It's even worse with videos. It takes 10 minutes t…
At the risk of sounding like an old man — heck, I guess I am — is this innovation ethical for humanity's future? A one-click "tl;dr" button for the web? There are studies saying overall human attention span is shrinking. Anecdotally, I know people in their 20s who use TikTok daily, and they're no longer able to watch a movie without losing focus. Squeezing all aspects of our digital life, including learning new skill…
I'm almost 40 and haven't been able to do this since the smartphone arrived; it's not Tiktok, it's just that the phone is right there, and movies are slow-paced (arty thrillers) or monotonous (lengthy CGI fight scenes).
This sort of thing is why Canadian media wanted a cut of big tech profits. Imagine how harmful this is to websites that need to grow audiences, particularly news websites
- clickbait
- hyperbolic
- gossip
- propaganda
- unoriginal
- unimportant
Privacy aside if it's done server side, I think this crosses another dangerous line. With this, Google controls how content you read is summarized, they could introduce biases, intentionally or not, and I'm not sure we should trust such an actor for this.