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The actual trend these days is that if your company struggles, blame AI ;) I can't say about WebMD and Chegg, but Quora and SO started going downhill before thi

by dig1 2y ago

The actual trend these days is that if your company struggles, blame AI ;) I can't say about WebMD and Chegg, but Quora and SO started going downhill before this AI (boom or bubble, whatever you call it) due to their policies, politics, and management. IMHO, of course.

whiplash451 2y ago
ChatGPT nearly killed Chegg https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtificialInteligence/comments/1cwq6qm/chatgpt_brings_down_online_education_stocks_chegg/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtificialInteligence/comments/1cwq...
- DaSHacka 2y ago
  Doesn't surprise me whatsoever. All Chegg has going for it is a database of answers for homework assignments that typically use per-student randomized numbers—so students have to recalculate their specific answer manually by following the steps—and "verified tutors" that constantly give wrong answers to even highschool-level math questions. Every college student I know uses ChatGPT (and now DeepSeek) for tons of assignments, usually via the free plan. Once you experience that, it gets really tempting to cancel that $20/month chegg subscription and never look back. I find professors pitiful fearmongering over 'the big bad ChatGPT' a little funny, such as when they insist they "have secret tools to detect AI usage" and "it can't answer the questions correctly anyway", so "you shouldn't even try it".
  - azemetre 2y ago
    I think the issue is when people start replacing their capacity to think and reason with these machines. There was an intergalactic space jihad about this IIRC.
    - shagie 2y ago
      I also recommend the written story for Zima Blue (the Love Death and Robots version was much more focused on the artistic aspect) and the question of wine.
      - azemetre 2y ago
        What are you referring to by "the question of wine?" Searching online didn't help, unless you meant Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury?
        shagie 2y ago
        In the story, wine is one of the topics of conversation between Carrie and Zima. The first mention of it - and the question - "Red or white?" Zima indicated that I should take one of the seats. His hand dithered over two bottles of wine. ‘Red or white, Carrie?’ I opened my mouth as if to answer him, but nothing came. Normally, in that instant between the question and the response, the AM would have silently directed my choice to one of the two options. Not having the AM’s prompt felt like a mental stall in my thoughts. ‘Red, I think,’ Zima said. ‘Unless you have strong objections.’ ‘It’s not that I can’t decide these things for myself,’ I said. Zima poured me a glass of red, then held it up to the sky to inspect its clarity. ‘Of course not,’ he said. The use of wine and the decision is one that goes through the entire story and plays a role at the conclusion. The "AM" is the Aide Memoire. It is a small robot resembling a hummingbird in size that accompanies people and is an assistant for remembering things for humans who have a lifespan of hundreds of years. I strongly recommend the story - it is so different from the animated version.
      - Talanes 2y ago
        Interestingly, went to do a search for "Zima Blue", and because the sidebar decided I wanted information about the tv episode, it gave me a Spanish Wikipedia link (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zima_Blue https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zima_Blue). The equivalent page in English Wikipedia redirects to "Zima Blue and Other Stories", instead.
        shagie 2y ago
        Zima Blue is the name of the story. It was made into a Love Death and Robots episode. The book Zima Blue and Other Stories is the most widely known collection that its found in (since its in the title), but it has been published in many others. https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?196048 https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?196048
  - tomrod 2y ago
    All the professors I pair with recently for papers are pro-chatgpt with some minor grumbling of content refactors.
  - TZubiri 2y ago
    How about you don't cheat and actually study? No sympathy. Glad it's dying.
    - DaSHacka 2y ago
      Good luck with that, academic cheating is a massive market. No matter the crackdown, the demand is always so high that someone will inevitably find a way to market services (such as Chegg or essay-for-hire services). The best counter against it is designing courses so that cheaters get minimal benefit while students that study get rewarded (such as closed note exams and lowering the value of homework assignments). Otherwise, whether it's ChatGPT, Chegg, or paying a friend who took the course last semester for their homework solutions, there's no real stopping it.
      - TZubiri 2y ago
        The discipline in question matters. I get that this may happen for an arts degree, or something like that, it's wrong on a moral level, slap on the wrist no biggie. But if we are talking physicians or lawyers, it becomes a criminal matter for me. Computer science I feel is on a gray area, and Engineering in the US doesn't have the same protections as it does in other countries. I'm starting to think we'll have to license computer programming in the following decade, there's so many quacks and shit software going around, something is gonna go horribly wrong.
famouswaffles 2y ago
Those thing aren't mutually exclusive. You can be on a decline and something comes along and tanks your visits well beyond what a natural decline would have been.
aimanbenbaha 2y ago
Unlike WebMD, Healthline doesn't seem to be losing traffic: https://www.semrush.com/website/healthline.com/overview/ https://www.semrush.com/website/healthline.com/overview/ I don't know what differentiates them since the content is apparently similar but I suspect a lot of websites like this will diversify their distribution channels and pivot accordingly.
IshKebab 2y ago
Stackoverflow is being killed by the combination of AI and its perpetual inability to fix moderation. They didn't really care about fixing it for a whole decade because they didn't have any competition. Now AI is better than Stackoverflow for a lot of problems, they actually have viable competition and people are leaving.

by dig1 2y ago

whiplash451 2y ago

ChatGPT nearly killed Chegg https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtificialInteligence/comments/1cwq6qm/chatgpt_brings_down_online_education_stocks_chegg/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtificialInteligence/comments/1cwq...

DaSHacka 2y ago
Doesn't surprise me whatsoever. All Chegg has going for it is a database of answers for homework assignments that typically use per-student randomized numbers—so students have to recalculate their specific answer manually by following the steps—and "verified tutors" that constantly give wrong answers to even highschool-level math questions. Every college student I know uses ChatGPT (and now DeepSeek) for tons of assignments, usually via the free plan. Once you experience that, it gets really tempting to cancel that $20/month chegg subscription and never look back. I find professors pitiful fearmongering over 'the big bad ChatGPT' a little funny, such as when they insist they "have secret tools to detect AI usage" and "it can't answer the questions correctly anyway", so "you shouldn't even try it".
- azemetre 2y ago
  I think the issue is when people start replacing their capacity to think and reason with these machines. There was an intergalactic space jihad about this IIRC.
  - shagie 2y ago
    I also recommend the written story for Zima Blue (the Love Death and Robots version was much more focused on the artistic aspect) and the question of wine.
    - azemetre 2y ago
      What are you referring to by "the question of wine?" Searching online didn't help, unless you meant Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury?
      - shagie 2y ago
        In the story, wine is one of the topics of conversation between Carrie and Zima. The first mention of it - and the question - "Red or white?" Zima indicated that I should take one of the seats. His hand dithered over two bottles of wine. ‘Red or white, Carrie?’ I opened my mouth as if to answer him, but nothing came. Normally, in that instant between the question and the response, the AM would have silently directed my choice to one of the two options. Not having the AM’s prompt felt like a mental stall in my thoughts. ‘Red, I think,’ Zima said. ‘Unless you have strong objections.’ ‘It’s not that I can’t decide these things for myself,’ I said. Zima poured me a glass of red, then held it up to the sky to inspect its clarity. ‘Of course not,’ he said. The use of wine and the decision is one that goes through the entire story and plays a role at the conclusion. The "AM" is the Aide Memoire. It is a small robot resembling a hummingbird in size that accompanies people and is an assistant for remembering things for humans who have a lifespan of hundreds of years. I strongly recommend the story - it is so different from the animated version.
    - Talanes 2y ago
      Interestingly, went to do a search for "Zima Blue", and because the sidebar decided I wanted information about the tv episode, it gave me a Spanish Wikipedia link (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zima_Blue https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zima_Blue). The equivalent page in English Wikipedia redirects to "Zima Blue and Other Stories", instead.
      - shagie 2y ago
        Zima Blue is the name of the story. It was made into a Love Death and Robots episode. The book Zima Blue and Other Stories is the most widely known collection that its found in (since its in the title), but it has been published in many others. https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?196048 https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?196048
- tomrod 2y ago
  All the professors I pair with recently for papers are pro-chatgpt with some minor grumbling of content refactors.
- TZubiri 2y ago
  How about you don't cheat and actually study? No sympathy. Glad it's dying.
  - DaSHacka 2y ago
    Good luck with that, academic cheating is a massive market. No matter the crackdown, the demand is always so high that someone will inevitably find a way to market services (such as Chegg or essay-for-hire services). The best counter against it is designing courses so that cheaters get minimal benefit while students that study get rewarded (such as closed note exams and lowering the value of homework assignments). Otherwise, whether it's ChatGPT, Chegg, or paying a friend who took the course last semester for their homework solutions, there's no real stopping it.
    - TZubiri 2y ago
      The discipline in question matters. I get that this may happen for an arts degree, or something like that, it's wrong on a moral level, slap on the wrist no biggie. But if we are talking physicians or lawyers, it becomes a criminal matter for me. Computer science I feel is on a gray area, and Engineering in the US doesn't have the same protections as it does in other countries. I'm starting to think we'll have to license computer programming in the following decade, there's so many quacks and shit software going around, something is gonna go horribly wrong.

famouswaffles 2y ago

Those thing aren't mutually exclusive. You can be on a decline and something comes along and tanks your visits well beyond what a natural decline would have been.

aimanbenbaha 2y ago

Unlike WebMD, Healthline doesn't seem to be losing traffic: https://www.semrush.com/website/healthline.com/overview/ https://www.semrush.com/website/healthline.com/overview/ I don't know what differentiates them since the content is apparently similar but I suspect a lot of websites like this will diversify their distribution channels and pivot accordingly.

IshKebab 2y ago

Stackoverflow is being killed by the combination of AI and its perpetual inability to fix moderation. They didn't really care about fixing it for a whole decade because they didn't have any competition. Now AI is better than Stackoverflow for a lot of problems, they actually have viable competition and people are leaving.