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> Some people might not like the answers, and some of the answers might be wrong. That's true of web search results now. Nobody blames Google when the answers

> Some people might not like the answers, and some of the answers might be wrong. That's true of web search results now. Nobody blames Google when the answers are wrong, because search doesn't give you answers. Search only returns results, and it's your job to evaluate those results and decide which is most likely. AI skips this and tries to give you the answer directly, which makes it responsible for its accuracy. But there is no signal for whether an answer is right or not, especially because it usually doesn't give you a source for its response. You have to roll the dice in a way you never have to for search. This is a fundamental issue with AI, which will always exist until it stops pretending to know everything and instead work by finding the answer and being transparent about its "thought process".

SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
I don't think that's an accurate description of how search engines work today. I just googled "What is a dog?", and I don't get any traditional search results at all until I scroll down half a page - the landing UI just shows me an info page describing what a dog is and depicting various breeds of dogs.
- phailhaus 2y ago
  Each one of those cards is associated with a source that you can go to directly. Google itself isn't "learning" what a dog is and telling you with authority. Instead, it's saying "Here's a bunch of basic stuff about dogs I pulled verbatim from this, this, and this site."
  - SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
    No, Google is telling me with authority. The UI calls it a "knowledge panel", and the "About this result" descriptor tells me that "This content comes from the Knowledge Graph, Google's collection of information about people, places, and things". Some of it has links to other sites embedded, but multiple displayed components, such as the lifespan and gestation period, have no non-Google source whatsoever associated with them.
    - phailhaus 2y ago
      > but multiple displayed components, such as the lifespan and gestation period, have no non-Google source whatsoever associated with them. Then those panels fall victim to exactly the same issue that AI is having today. When you hide your sources, you are assuming responsibility for accuracy. You better be right, because the user has no way to judge the quality of your answer.
ben_w 2y ago
> Nobody blames Google when the answers are wrong Don't they? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google#Possible_misuse_of_search_results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google#Possible_m...
Animats 2y ago
> Search doesn't give you answers. Search only returns results, and it's your job to evaluate those results and decide which is most likely. Right, that would be Stack Overflow and all the sites which use SEO to rank for "best".

SpicyLemonZest 2y ago

I don't think that's an accurate description of how search engines work today. I just googled "What is a dog?", and I don't get any traditional search results at all until I scroll down half a page - the landing UI just shows me an info page describing what a dog is and depicting various breeds of dogs.

phailhaus 2y ago
Each one of those cards is associated with a source that you can go to directly. Google itself isn't "learning" what a dog is and telling you with authority. Instead, it's saying "Here's a bunch of basic stuff about dogs I pulled verbatim from this, this, and this site."
- SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
  No, Google is telling me with authority. The UI calls it a "knowledge panel", and the "About this result" descriptor tells me that "This content comes from the Knowledge Graph, Google's collection of information about people, places, and things". Some of it has links to other sites embedded, but multiple displayed components, such as the lifespan and gestation period, have no non-Google source whatsoever associated with them.
  - phailhaus 2y ago
    > but multiple displayed components, such as the lifespan and gestation period, have no non-Google source whatsoever associated with them. Then those panels fall victim to exactly the same issue that AI is having today. When you hide your sources, you are assuming responsibility for accuracy. You better be right, because the user has no way to judge the quality of your answer.

ben_w 2y ago

> Nobody blames Google when the answers are wrong Don't they? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google#Possible_misuse_of_search_results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google#Possible_m...

Animats 2y ago

> Search doesn't give you answers. Search only returns results, and it's your job to evaluate those results and decide which is most likely. Right, that would be Stack Overflow and all the sites which use SEO to rank for "best".