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.
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.
Tom Ritchford@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...