Example of how unreliable AI search summaries can be

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pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
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Someone on the radio referred to 'hardened criminals' and a truly ancient joke popped into my head (as it does every single time I hear that phrase - damn you, brain, why are you clogged-up with this stuff?). Out of curiosity I googled it to see what '70s TV show I must have heard it on. Google's AI presented me with the following, suggesting it really doesn't get 'humour'. Every subsequent search result was a variant of that joke.

1754334305950.png
 
nakedfrog

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
62,030
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136
AI Overview finally got me off using Google as my default search engine. DDG at least gives you options surrounding it, and I haven't been aware of it feeding me garbage on the times when it has popped up for me.
 
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conspireagainst

conspireagainst

Member
May 2, 2024
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The Duck has been my only search engine going on 11 years now. Although its results are based on Bing/Microsoft, whatever layer it puts on top of that is superior. Also, as nakedfrog stated, the most important feature of it now is that you can turn the stupid AI nonsense off if you don't like it.
 
lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
59,551
10,057
126
AI is garbage. I think less of people that rely on it for anything. You have no idea if the answer it gives is correct or not. It sounds plausible, but you're just as close to a real answer as you were before you started typing.
 
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biostud

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
19,776
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lxskllr said:
AI is garbage. I think less of people that rely on it for anything. You have no idea if the answer it gives is correct or not. It sounds plausible, but you're just as close to a real answer as you were before you started typing.
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I find it helpful when learning how to use Linux.
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,239
13,614
126
www.anyf.ca
I find it has it's uses if you just need to be walked through how to do something in Linux, or coding etc. If it's wrong, then what you're trying simply won't work, then you can tell it it didn't work, and eventually you may get somewhere. It can also point you in the right direction so you know what to even search for. Like if you're trying to do something specific it might mention the name of a library or software or whatever, then you can search that further. Sometimes half the battle is knowing what package you need to install or what library you need, so that something works and AI tends to be good at giving that info, while a web search will have you going around in circles.

But if you're trying to use it go get specific info like history or whatever then that can be iffy as you will want to verify that info to make sure it's actually accurate.

Either way it's best to use it as a tool, and not just rely on it 100%. You should still understand the output and verify it before using it in something important.
 
lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
59,551
10,057
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I can see uses for some people, but they're very specific, and particular. Law firms have gotten into big trouble using ai for court cases, but I think that's one of the better uses for it if it's appropriately used. I see it as giving a task to your dumbest intern, to find similar historic court cases matching X and Y, with the variables Q, L, and Z. The ai then comes up with matches. You then need someone smart to verify the results with real books, and of course you don't have the ai write fucking anything.

That's just me looking from the outside, and it might not even be good for that. There might be professional tools not using ai that do what I prescribe using traditional search, but it's something.

Also, ai is a bad use of energy. It takes a ton of power to give you fucked up answers and pictures. We finally start to get a grip on power generation that isn't gonna fuck us over long term, and these motherfucking corporatists take all the gains and a little more building nonsense that makes our lives worse in the present AND the future. I refuse to participate on ethical grounds. Fuck those worthless cocksuckers.
 
D

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
17,247
16,468
146
lxskllr said:
I can see uses for some people, but they're very specific, and particular. Law firms have gotten into big trouble using ai for court cases, but I think that's one of the better uses for it if it's appropriately used. I see it as giving a task to your dumbest intern, to find similar historic court cases matching X and Y, with the variables Q, L, and Z. The ai then comes up with matches. You then need someone smart to verify the results with real books, and of course you don't have the ai write fucking anything.

That's just me looking from the outside, and it might not even be good for that. There might be professional tools not using ai that do what I prescribe using traditional search, but it's something.

Also, ai is a bad use of energy. It takes a ton of power to give you fucked up answers and pictures. We finally start to get a grip on power generation that isn't gonna fuck us over long term, and these motherfucking corporatists take all the gains and a little more building nonsense that makes our lives worse in the present AND the future. I refuse to participate on ethical grounds. Fuck those worthless cocksuckers.
Click to expand...
I work in IT, that's exactly how I use it, to a) write shitty emails I don't feel like drafting myself, and b) getting answers/scripts/whatever that I can personally verify prior to utilizing.
 
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pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
14,997
9,876
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biostud said:
I find it helpful when learning how to use Linux.
Click to expand...

For every single search I've done where it produced an AI answer, the answer was so unreliable as to be useless, and it was far, far more useful to scroll down and read the actual proper sources the search turned up (whatever topic it was about). Really seemed no point reading a distorted, misinterpreted conflation of those same sources (other than for entertainment/amusement value - which is non-negligible, to be fair*). Google's AI, at least, just seems to present an answer that is articulate and nicely-tuned to the precise wording of your question - but with completely corrupted content compared to the original sources.

I've noticed people I know seizing on the AI answer, precisely because its particular distortion was saying what they wanted to hear (while the actual evidence-based sources did not). If the AI "summary" ever ends up replacing the actual search 'hits' it will be disastrous.

* I found Google's straight-laced misinterpretation of the joke in the original post to be in itself, kind-of funny.
 
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biostud

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
19,776
6,865
136
lxskllr said:
How so? What does it provide over a general web search?
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I don't have to look at multiple sites to find what I want to do.

When I wanted to take all my photos including subfolders and make a copy with reduced size for a slideshow, it wrote me a script that did exactly that.

It doesn't always solve problems, but to me it works like a really useful helpfile which will produce the right commands if you just feed it some names of your folders. A problem with steam was solved by searching the web, though.

I use Claude.ai.

This is the first time I have found something the AI can actually help me with, but sometimes it also try to use MacOS or Windows solutions, so no it is not perfect or error free, but it is still helpful.
 
D

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
17,247
16,468
146
pmv said:
I've noticed people I know seizing on the AI answer, precisely because its particular distortion was saying what they wanted to hear (while the actual evidence-based sources did not). If the AI "summary" ever ends up replacing the actual search 'hits' it will be disastrous.
Click to expand...
There's a reason I call current gen AI a 'confirmation engine'.
 
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K1052

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
52,060
45,003
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lxskllr said:
I can see uses for some people, but they're very specific, and particular. Law firms have gotten into big trouble using ai for court cases, but I think that's one of the better uses for it if it's appropriately used. I see it as giving a task to your dumbest intern, to find similar historic court cases matching X and Y, with the variables Q, L, and Z. The ai then comes up with matches. You then need someone smart to verify the results with real books, and of course you don't have the ai write fucking anything.
Click to expand...

If I found out my lawyer or accountant used a chatbot for anything involved in providing the services I'm paying for my average response would be:

480w_s.jpg
 
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nakedfrog

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
62,030
17,813
136
pmv said:
For every single search I've done where it produced an AI answer, the answer was so unreliable as to be useless, and it was far, far more useful to scroll down and read the actual proper sources the search turned up (whatever topic it was about). Really seemed no point reading a distorted, misinterpreted conflation of those same sources (other than for entertainment/amusement value - which is non-negligible, to be fair*). Google's AI, at least, just seems to present an answer that is articulate and nicely-tuned to the precise wording of your question - but with completely corrupted content compared to the original sources.

I've noticed people I know seizing on the AI answer, precisely because its particular distortion was saying what they wanted to hear (while the actual evidence-based sources did not). If the AI "summary" ever ends up replacing the actual search 'hits' it will be disastrous.

* I found Google's straight-laced misinterpretation of the joke in the original post to be in itself, kind-of funny.
Click to expand...
I did a search a few weeks back on how to do a specific thing on a PC that I had not yet changed the search engine on, and so the AI summary was there and I thought "well, let's take a look", and the first few steps were accurate, and the whole thing completely failed to answer the most critical part of what I was looking for.
Was a bit like this.

1754407384153.png
 
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P

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
14,997
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136
lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
59,551
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