One thing I want to use a social media AI for: detecting whenever someone is asking an easily Google-able question.

The AI would save so much time by just sending the offending party a link to Google.

I once asked someone, "Why do you ask such obvious questions to social media instead of just Googling it?"

His response was enlightening: "I don't trust Google."

Okay, so I get why someone might have suspicions about Google's algorithms, but why are random Internet strangers—many susceptible to conspiracy theories—more reputable to you than Google?

That's a rhetorical question, by the way. Don't answer it.

@atomicpoet Other search engines are available.
@atomicpoet closer to home, my mother will trust any stranger she strikes a conversation with at the bus stop better than me. No computers involved but she'll lap up any conspiracy theory
The people answering those questions likely just googled it too @atomicpoet
@scurvydawg If the people answering the questions have any good sense at all 🙂

@atomicpoet
I get that it's only a rhetorical question but I reckon it's sociologically and psychologically quite interesting if you think about it, so I would like to talk it out:

1/16

@Butcher That's okay. I'd rather just google it 🙃

@atomicpoet I feel like there should be a good selection bias joke in whatever answer Google would return. So now I'm actually a bit curious but also can't be bothered.

(sorry I 'm just a tad bored on a long train journey)

@atomicpoet with apologies, I'ma answer this anyway- because on a subconscious level, maybe what they're really looking for is for someone to give them an answer that they already agree with.
@atomicpoet I have a friend who always asks me instead of googling, and when I asked him why don't you google it his answer was "Because if you don't know the answer you'll google it and get me the best answer you found".
@myassin Oh, so he wants to pass off the labour of to you, have you work for free. Nice friend.

@atomicpoet rhetorical or not, that's never stopped me before...

'Trust' is not a conclusion. It is an emotion.

There is no freakin' way ANY human can "have all the data" _and_ assimilate it sufficient to cover all possible outcomes, except perhaps from novels and video games which, a surprise to some, do not reflect real life.

Manipulating people's emotions, including Trust, is called "marketing" 😏 For more information, contact Disney.

#ifeelicantrustthis #ymmv

@atomicpoet What if, and I know this is crazy, there were *other search engines* out there, run by at least moderately more ethical people... that could answer... all of the same queries?!?
@atomicpoet some people took the phrase "question everything" wayyy too literally
@atomicpoet I would pay money to get this off the ground.
@atomicpoet I sometimes miss the days of asking each other questions that are googlable. I can get answers from Wikipedia or wherever, but there's value in hearing how the person bringing up the topic describes the thing.
@sonjathegrey I personally think that whatever value there is gets erased by the Dunning-Kruger Effect and conspiracy theory thinking.
So just like LMGTFY but a bot @atomicpoet
@atomicpoet One sign of experience and wisdom is to be able to seek answers from a variety of sources and evaluate them on their own merits. Being able to synthesize contradictory information and act in the face of uncertainty is a life hack worth mastering.
@atomicpoet Or maybe let's just be humans? And stop peddling and wanting for superfluous technology that could somehow be used to solve real problems, but it's not, and is instead, without a doubt, being used for nefarious ends, and will continue to be so in the future?

@jec Well, maybe I'd like to be human, spend my time doing human things, instead of being human Google on social media.

Especially with tech support questions.

@atomicpoet Can't you just not answer them? Honest question
@jec Usually, I don't. But certain people get very demanding to the point where this insistence creates conflict.
Let Me Google That

For all those people that find it more convenient to bother you with their question than to google it for themselves.

LetMeGoogleThat.com
@atomicpoet Or maybe a link to an actual website with the answer?
@dre All right, now do this for 100s of people. Over and over again.

@atomicpoet easily googleable is very very very subjective. I’m a power user of search tools (use them daily for 30+ years) and DAILY I find things that Google’s results for are utter garbage (or can’t find a search that gets anything useful from google without help from a human who knows a specific term I don’t know - because I’m trying to find something I’m not familiar with the terminology for.

This can be as simple as Earthquakes in San Jose (which returns mostly hockey results not seismic

@atomicpoet: but sending a link to DuckDuckGo would be more privacy-friendly.
LMGTFY - Let Me Google That For You

For all those people who find it more convenient to bother you with their question rather than to Google it for themselves.