Do you think search results have become better or worse with the introduction of AI?

#Search #AI #Computer #Windows #Linux #Vivaldi

  • rsp@ecoevo.social
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    7 days ago

    @jon@vivaldi.net Do you mean to ask if the internet is filling up with AI generated content? Or whether or not AI summaries provide value to search results? Because AI summaries do not replace or change search results themselves, they are added to the results.

      • rsp@ecoevo.social
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        6 days ago

        @jon@vivaldi.net I dont think it’s possible to quantify (beyond gut feeling…which is ver biased and often wrong) what impact AI is having on search results. AI summaries can only be evaluated against what we know to be true. So there are difficulties there also without doing a well designed experiment.

        • Jon S. von Tetzchner@social.vivaldi.netOP
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          6 days ago

          @rspfau@ecoevo.social , we all evaluate based on our own experience. You may or may not agree with what other people are seeing, but that is what they are seeing.

          In my case, I have been on the Internet since the start of the Web and IMHO there has been a clear change.

          • rsp@ecoevo.social
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            6 days ago

            @jon@vivaldi.net This is actually why science was invented. People’s subjective experiences are very often wrong. It’s what we think we see. I’m wrong all the time because of my biases and preconceptions.

            • Jon S. von Tetzchner@social.vivaldi.netOP
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              6 days ago

              @rspfau@ecoevo.social , a poll is actually for the purpose of asking people what they think. That is what I am interested in.

              I do think AI has made results a lot worse. Partially because of the summaries and partially because there is a lot of AI generated content early in the results. I am finding it harder to find stuff I am looking for, that I know is there.

              • rsp@ecoevo.social
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                6 days ago

                @jon@vivaldi.net Something that I’ve been wondering the past several months is if anyone has attempted to objectively tried to address the question of quality of search results. I dont even know if one can objectively test one search engine against another much less the past versus the present. Do you know of any efforts to do this?

                • Jon S. von Tetzchner@social.vivaldi.netOP
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                  6 days ago

                  @rspfau@ecoevo.social , I think it is hard to do really. Unless you can recognize AI and other SEO generated stuff. If there is more of that, the results are, IMHO, objectively worse. Most of the time one is not interested in AI stuff, but rather information from the source. Anything else is, objectively, worse.