3 ms·

I haven't been able to get much practical travel advice from AI yet, any tips? For stuff like hiking routes, permitting, local cuisine, etc. I don't think it c

I haven't been able to get much practical travel advice from AI yet, any tips? For stuff like hiking routes, permitting, local cuisine, etc. I don't think it can replace a good blog from an experienced person at this point.

thedevilslawyer 1y ago
I'd like to engage. Can you give a specific example? We can make an honest attempt to see what the old vs AI options for it looks like. Both of us will walk away a bit more informed, and share here with others as well.
- sampullman 1y ago
  What do you mean? I use AI plenty and am aware of the capabilities. AI will give good surface level advice and sometimes point to decent sources. If I'm looking for e.g. a good hike in a specific area near me, I know the blogs that will have directions, pics, and GPX data for all the routes. These are found via word of mouth, search, and local forums.
FinnLobsien 1y ago
It depends. I've found o3 exceptional at finding things off the beaten path. I told it "I will be in city A, B and C in [month]" and would love to find out what to do. I have a car, am willing to drive and generally care most about gastronomy, food and culture. There's also flexibility in terms of timing and stays." It read things like websites of municipalities of surrounding towns and found local food festivals in towns I never would've found out about otherwise. It's exactly the kind of stuff I'd previously read the experienced person's blog for.
arrowsmith 1y ago
It's a trade-off. AI gives you speed but lower quality. Blog posts are higher quality but take longer to find/curate. For hiking routes, I ask AI for a list of suggested hiking routes in [area] based on my criteria (e.g. dog friendly, accessible by public transport, whatever) Then I google the specific suggested routes to fact-check the AI and get more detailed/reliable info.
- sampullman 1y ago
  That's true. I'm not anti AI or anything, I use it for plenty of things where search falls short or has decayed due to SEO spam I guess it comes down to knowing where to find valuable information. If you already have known quality sources, AI is currently inferior. Where I live I'm lucky to have tons of trails that have been meticulously mapped out and the made available (with images, directions, gear recommendations, etc.) on various blogs. I don't see AI being able to totally replace that in its current state, especially due to the semi-dynamic nature of the data.
wslh 1y ago
My experience with AI is that prompting LLMs tends to fail when the task involves returning a long list of alternatives and/or selecting niche options unless the user explicitly names them.
- arrowsmith 1y ago
  Do it iteratively. Ask the LLM for a long list of alternatives but without detail, only the names. Then start a new chat, paste in the list of names, and ask for more detail.
  - wslh 1y ago
    I've done this several times when benchmarking lesser-known companies, and manual compilation using a search engine consistently outperformed LLMs even when those companies are part of the model's training data. My intuition (could be completely wrong) is that lesser-known companies have much less density around them that popular brands, except if you are very specific. It would be great if this could be tweaked somehow.
ezst 1y ago
I wouldn't expect them to. Large language models compress the information at a high-level. If you need specifics, you need a search engine and a data set. LLMs specifically aren't that, despite all the fuss and hype.

thedevilslawyer 1y ago

I'd like to engage. Can you give a specific example? We can make an honest attempt to see what the old vs AI options for it looks like. Both of us will walk away a bit more informed, and share here with others as well.

sampullman 1y ago
What do you mean? I use AI plenty and am aware of the capabilities. AI will give good surface level advice and sometimes point to decent sources. If I'm looking for e.g. a good hike in a specific area near me, I know the blogs that will have directions, pics, and GPX data for all the routes. These are found via word of mouth, search, and local forums.

FinnLobsien 1y ago

It depends. I've found o3 exceptional at finding things off the beaten path. I told it "I will be in city A, B and C in [month]" and would love to find out what to do. I have a car, am willing to drive and generally care most about gastronomy, food and culture. There's also flexibility in terms of timing and stays." It read things like websites of municipalities of surrounding towns and found local food festivals in towns I never would've found out about otherwise. It's exactly the kind of stuff I'd previously read the experienced person's blog for.

arrowsmith 1y ago

It's a trade-off. AI gives you speed but lower quality. Blog posts are higher quality but take longer to find/curate. For hiking routes, I ask AI for a list of suggested hiking routes in [area] based on my criteria (e.g. dog friendly, accessible by public transport, whatever) Then I google the specific suggested routes to fact-check the AI and get more detailed/reliable info.

sampullman 1y ago
That's true. I'm not anti AI or anything, I use it for plenty of things where search falls short or has decayed due to SEO spam I guess it comes down to knowing where to find valuable information. If you already have known quality sources, AI is currently inferior. Where I live I'm lucky to have tons of trails that have been meticulously mapped out and the made available (with images, directions, gear recommendations, etc.) on various blogs. I don't see AI being able to totally replace that in its current state, especially due to the semi-dynamic nature of the data.

wslh 1y ago

My experience with AI is that prompting LLMs tends to fail when the task involves returning a long list of alternatives and/or selecting niche options unless the user explicitly names them.

arrowsmith 1y ago
Do it iteratively. Ask the LLM for a long list of alternatives but without detail, only the names. Then start a new chat, paste in the list of names, and ask for more detail.
- wslh 1y ago
  I've done this several times when benchmarking lesser-known companies, and manual compilation using a search engine consistently outperformed LLMs even when those companies are part of the model's training data. My intuition (could be completely wrong) is that lesser-known companies have much less density around them that popular brands, except if you are very specific. It would be great if this could be tweaked somehow.

ezst 1y ago

I wouldn't expect them to. Large language models compress the information at a high-level. If you need specifics, you need a search engine and a data set. LLMs specifically aren't that, despite all the fuss and hype.