5 ms·

The real problem is ad business. If chatgpt becomes monopoly we will see many ad banners. After several years of monopoly we will see chatgpt anders lacking so

The real problem is ad business. If chatgpt becomes monopoly we will see many ad banners. After several years of monopoly we will see chatgpt anders lacking so that you will have to see more banners in response. After some time quality of answers will depend on the amount of money you put into your chatgpt subscription. You will not be able to go back to google. There will be no google any more.

EA-3167 3y ago
The only really workable solution imo is that search companies need to make their money on searches, not ads; something like Kagi I guess. Any perverse incentive is inimical to a really good search engine. I think the internet is going to start to stratify into paid and "free" tiers going forward, and honestly it's about goddamned time.
- zirgs 3y ago
  A huge drawback of Kagi is that it requires an account and can associate your search history with it. Using other search engines while not logged in is more privacy friendly.
  - ahartmetz 3y ago
    That problem seems very solvable if they don't need to monetize your data. You might, for example, turn off search history and the use of search history to guess what you might mean with new searches.
    - zirgs 3y ago
      Turning search history off doesn't mean that they stop recording in in their database. I have no way to verify that.
    - ipaddr 3y ago
      Kagi keeps track of all queries because they are charging you for each one or removing from daily quota
      - freediver 3y ago
        Kagi keeps track of query count, not the actual queries.
  - EA-3167 3y ago
    I really doubt that using Google while not logged in is more 'privacy friendly' than anything else, given their ability to track with pixels and shadow profiles. In any case I don't particularly care about that issue, I'm not searching for bomb-making guides or anything. What I care about is a search engine that's trying its hardest to serve me answers to my searches, rather than feeding me ads.
imiric 3y ago
Exactly. AI tools today are great for the same reason Google was great in its first few years of existence: they want to attract users and sell this awesome new product. But this will quickly change. The ad and investor-fueled enshittification will inevitably also come to popular AI tools, but in even more sinister ways than web search results. Forget banners and traditional ad campaigns. Users will start seeing subtle product placements in the responses, and certain brands placed higher than others, all embedded in the friendly conversational tone they're used to, to make them even more susceptible to manipulation. Thanks to the sea of private data users are willing to share with their "personal" AI assistant, the responses will be perfectly fine-tuned so that ads are targeted at them _personally_. Advertisers will no longer need to target broad cohorts who may or may not be interested in their brand. They will be able to reach _exactly_ people who are most likely to make a purchase, especially if the ad is delivered at _exactly_ the right moment when the person is most vulnerable. The only way to avoid this is to use open source and self-hosted AI tools, but the vast majority of people will use whatever service is popular and "free", same as today.
- manzanarama 3y ago
  Enshittification
  - allanrbo 3y ago
    https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/ https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/

EA-3167 3y ago

The only really workable solution imo is that search companies need to make their money on searches, not ads; something like Kagi I guess. Any perverse incentive is inimical to a really good search engine. I think the internet is going to start to stratify into paid and "free" tiers going forward, and honestly it's about goddamned time.

zirgs 3y ago
A huge drawback of Kagi is that it requires an account and can associate your search history with it. Using other search engines while not logged in is more privacy friendly.
- ahartmetz 3y ago
  That problem seems very solvable if they don't need to monetize your data. You might, for example, turn off search history and the use of search history to guess what you might mean with new searches.
  - zirgs 3y ago
    Turning search history off doesn't mean that they stop recording in in their database. I have no way to verify that.
  - ipaddr 3y ago
    Kagi keeps track of all queries because they are charging you for each one or removing from daily quota
    - freediver 3y ago
      Kagi keeps track of query count, not the actual queries.
- EA-3167 3y ago
  I really doubt that using Google while not logged in is more 'privacy friendly' than anything else, given their ability to track with pixels and shadow profiles. In any case I don't particularly care about that issue, I'm not searching for bomb-making guides or anything. What I care about is a search engine that's trying its hardest to serve me answers to my searches, rather than feeding me ads.

imiric 3y ago

Exactly. AI tools today are great for the same reason Google was great in its first few years of existence: they want to attract users and sell this awesome new product. But this will quickly change. The ad and investor-fueled enshittification will inevitably also come to popular AI tools, but in even more sinister ways than web search results. Forget banners and traditional ad campaigns. Users will start seeing subtle product placements in the responses, and certain brands placed higher than others, all embedded in the friendly conversational tone they're used to, to make them even more susceptible to manipulation. Thanks to the sea of private data users are willing to share with their "personal" AI assistant, the responses will be perfectly fine-tuned so that ads are targeted at them _personally_. Advertisers will no longer need to target broad cohorts who may or may not be interested in their brand. They will be able to reach _exactly_ people who are most likely to make a purchase, especially if the ad is delivered at _exactly_ the right moment when the person is most vulnerable. The only way to avoid this is to use open source and self-hosted AI tools, but the vast majority of people will use whatever service is popular and "free", same as today.

manzanarama 3y ago
Enshittification
- allanrbo 3y ago
  https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/ https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/