Alphonzo P. Funkenstein
ScalziI don't really want "AI" in my search results. What I actually want are search results that accurately correspond to my queries. So far the "AI" tech companies have been showing off tends to do a lot of fabulation; that doesn't bode well for good search results.
Саша Морс, here we go again...@scalzi I've been playing with chat gpt for months and getting so many garbage answers, my hope is tiny.
... But I'm not sure it's worse than using google?
I TRIED TO TELL YOU@scalzi That's putting it mildly, I'd say.
Reduxe@scalzi I'm just worried about the speed and increasing desperation/panic behind the rollouts of these new products. We're back to Facebook's "move fast and break things" and we all saw how well that worked out...
BoterBug@scalzi AI is the buzzword but all it is is really a bunch of algorithms. Algorithms have gotten us search results for decades. If it helps return what I actually asked for rather than someone gaming the SEO, I'm for it.
Sckenai@boterbug @scalzi I’d agree with you on the results. But AI is not a bunch of algorithms. It is a single algorithm, pattern matching, that is notoriously difficult to decode. It works, but it is t easy to understand how it gets from input to output without hand waving, a miracle happens here, type verbiage. The best you can get is a series of statistical probabilities, but not all neural networks can have those pulled out.
Tony Goins@scalzi The fact that they've rolled it out so quickly indicates that they *already* had it. They just didn't think it was ready for prime time. And then competitors forced their hand.
Peter Butler@ITradedMyEyes @scalzi or else they were caught completely flat-footed and had to say something to appease investors 🤷🏼
Alphabet shares dive after Google AI chatbot Bard flubs answer in ad
Alphabet Inc <a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/GOOGL.O" target="_blank">(GOOGL.O)</a> lost $100 billion in market value on Wednesday after its new chatbot shared inaccurate information in a promotional video and a company event failed to dazzle, feeding worries that the Google parent is losing ground to rival Microsoft Corp <a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/MSFT.O" target="_blank">(MSFT.O)</a>.
Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈@scalzi ug, this whole thing stinks of 'crypto hype', Silicon Valley is not to be trusted with anything.
Can't even do a simple Internet search now...
Can't even do a simple Internet search now...
LN Clarke@scalzi Did the newish Bing setting for “conversation style” (GPT temperature) make a difference for you? I feel like the original release assumed users valued personality/creativity over accuracy in their AI, and that setting helped some. Though I’m not sure how far they dialed it back.
Joseph Cassidy@scalzi
We're going to have to fact-check the results, and what are we going to use to fact-check? Google?
(Disclaimer: when I google something I use DuckDuckGo, which, if I understand correctly, uses Bing.)
potatoofdestiny@scalzi googles been increasingly crappy at search since they gave up on the whole "don't be evil" thing
jebelkrong@scalzi I’ve noted it always has a tone of utmost confidence in its answers. It ‘types’ the text at you, suggesting the algo/ai is choosing its words carefully. The answers have been pointed out as reasons why I am wrong about X. I am wrong from time to time, but in limited chances, I’m usually more correct in my field than chatGPT. Imagine being a doctor, lawyer, a learner. Humanity acts as if search results are authoritative. I don’t see the benefit here either.
@scalzi remember how Google got to be the standard ( and before Google, AltaVista )… by providing the most relevant search results. I stopped using Google and switched to Bing years ago. Google was giving me popular search results, not relevant to what I was looking for. Bing has been much better. If the results are not good (relevant) people will look elsewhere. While Google is still the market leader, there are other options.
Ursula Katherine Spiller
Charlie Stross@scalzi It's a misapplication of AI. What any search company *should* be doing is training language models to detect SEO and ruthlessly derank spammy or junk content from the search results.
But Google isn't a search company. Google is the advertising behemoth formerly known as Doubleclick, with a search subsidiary to sucker in the public eyeballs. And the more time you waste staring at the web pages carrying their ads the more use your eyeballs are to them.
Google doesn't work for you or me.
Helge Wilker
Tom Ritchford
Nihl L'Amas@hmwilker @cstross @scalzi
What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?
I learned that Google is never wrong,
Its algorithm is true and strong,
I learned that tech will make us free,
That's what the algorithm said to me,
That's what I learned in school today,
That's what I learned in Google's charter school with which I signed a non-disparagement agreement.
Kit Bashir@hmwilker @cstross @scalzi how about some G&S?
🎶I am the very model of an Internet Monopoly,
I Hoover up your data then I model it’s topology,
I influence your buying and your vote with my psychology,
And if you ever twig, you’ll get my insincere apology!🎵
🎶Each time you search the web I make a note in my big database,
Your photo uploads help me guess your weight and recognize your face.
I’ve information detailing each ad you’ve seen and clicked upon,
I even know the username you use on Ashley Madison!🎵
🎶I track you as you surf the web, with magic cookie pixie dust,
I override your Do Not Track, to silently betray your trust.
I’ve even got the DNA, your sister sent to Ancestry,
Oh yes I am the very model of an Internet Monopoly!🎵
@cstross @scalzi I worked for GOOG for five years, from just before the IPO. There was a gradual but steady change over the whole time.
In 2004, the math behind the ad auction prioritized searchers, then advertisers, and Google last. Ethics were a constant concern.
It's addiction. Seeing "your" stock rise is like crack. Everyone wants to get that hit again.
No individual "is bad" or does anything "really evil". Corporations launder moral responsibility by nature and by design.
Seiðr@TomSwirly @cstross @scalzi Ambrose Bierce wrote it more than a Century ago: CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
Jorge Stolfi@Illuminatus @TomSwirly @cstross @scalzi
That is not even a joke. It is precisely the point of the concept...
RachelCooperations were already essentially financial automata. They seek the local profit maximum to the exclusion of everything thing else.
AI is just another lazy excuse for their actions.
The only viable way to really direct or limit them is regulation.
I have to keep reminding people that the reason 6 year olds aren't coal miners anymore isn't because mining companies decided that kids should do something else with their tiny hands.
@transitory @cstross @scalzi Someone on this thread nailed it a dozen years ago: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/12/invaders-from-mars.html
Nicole Parsons@TomSwirly @transitory @cstross @scalzi
Corporations, like super PAC's, are used to conceal the identities of those funding fascism.
Corporations have become super-citizens with more civil rights than voters.
Fuck Elon 
@TomSwirly @cstross @scalzi I think John Le Carré had it right when he explored how the tension between individual and institution. I think this balance is the key for our lives, once we get to a certain age. I certainly think one can be judged by the institutions we _continue_ to work for.
@nicksdrew @cstross @scalzi This is one of the many reasons I don't work for Google anymore.
They treated me, personally, very well, but...
Rachel@TomSwirly @[email protected] @[email protected]
Cooperations were already essentially financial automata. They seek the local profit maximum to the exclusion of everything thing else.
AI is just another lazy excuse for their actions.
The only viable way to really direct or limit them is regulation.
I have to keep reminding people that the reason 6 year olds aren't coal miners anymore isn't because mining companies decided that kids should do something else with their tiny hands.
Cooperations were already essentially financial automata. They seek the local profit maximum to the exclusion of everything thing else.
AI is just another lazy excuse for their actions.
The only viable way to really direct or limit them is regulation.
I have to keep reminding people that the reason 6 year olds aren't coal miners anymore isn't because mining companies decided that kids should do something else with their tiny hands.
Gregg "Cabe" Bond
kwh@scalzi @cstross I’m about fucking done with them. One of the big issues 20 years ago with search was massive number of promoted links and search stemming was completely unpredictable - what made Google usable is that every result was in the matching set - containing each key word, so you could engineer your search terms to get what you want.
DanaBlankenhorn
Dr. Angus Andrea Grieve-Smith
WndlB@cstross Now do Microsoft.
Also, why can't they put an effective spam filter in Outlook email?
Also, why can't they put an effective spam filter in Outlook email?
Who Google works for:
1. Their investors, the Saudis
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2289076/media
https://theintercept.com/2023/02/17/google-cloud-saudi-aramco-oil/
https://thecradle.co/article-view/21615/google-saudi-aramco-greenwashing-oil-production-report
2. Private equity hedge fund managers
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/billionaire-hohn-more-google-layoffs-17736530.php
https://www.ft.com/content/6daa5d29-8595-4630-a633-eb1f8b138446
Google’s new campaign promotes tourism in Saudi Arabia
DUBAI: Google has launched a new video-based campaign, in collaboration with Saudi creators, to promote tourism in Jeddah. Called “Let’s Go with Google,” the campaign features three road trip experiences in the city, during which Saudi content creators explore the region with the help of Google. The videos are in Arabic but feature English subtitles to reach as wide an audience as possible. The first episode, which aired on April 13, featured Sultan Al-Badran and Mosab Al-Maliki.
TS Hottle@scalzi It's autocorrect on steroids plugged into a search engine.
So far, not that impressive.
Yaoi Box Balloon@scalzi I feel like that space witch from Power Rangers because this AI crap is giving me such a headache.
v̾i̾t̾r̾i̾o̾l̾i̾x̾@scalzi don't worry, it will be 10 real results and 1 fake one, good luck!