David Revoy | Mastodon | Bonus Timelapse

Transcript

The Degraded Search Engine

A comic in four panels:

Panel 1. Cepper, the gothic sorceress, walks toward a large steampunk machine in the center of the library written “Gooblin” on it, colored letters. The machine resembles a rusty block, with a threadmill on one side, a seat and a typewriter-style keyboard.

Cepper: “A good old ‘search engine’, this is what I need for my research!”

Panel 2. Close up, Cepper types on the typewriter keyboard, looking at the screen.

Cepper: “R.I.N.G. O.F. F.I.R.E S.P.E.L.L.S. enter”
Cepper: “…And voilà.”

Panel 3. The machine spits out dozens of scrolls and books. Cepper reads them.

Cepper: “Wait… Why are these results so bad?..”
Book 1: “(Ad) Ten Fire Spells That Will Change Your Life (You Won’t Believe the 7th!)”
Book 2: “(Sponsored) 15 Spicy Onion Ring Recipes”
Book 3: “(For you) Top 5 Best Engagement Rings”
Book 4: “(ad) How to Start a Campfire: A Comprehensive Guide”
Book 5: “Is Your Fire Spell Not Working? (Try This One Simple Trick!)”
Book 6: “(Sponsored) Cheap Fire-Resistant Panties! (50% Off Today Only!)”

Panel 4. A librarian approaches, their AI Parrot perched on their shoulder, pointing it. Cepper looks defeated, her eyes blasé.

Librarian: “Yeah, they tuned it this way so everyone just uses their Avian Intelligence for searching now…” Cepper: “…How unsurprising.”

  • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    152·
    2 days ago

    I’m generally pro (or at least neutral) -AI myself, but I’m not seeing the issue here. Google search has gone down the drain, ever since they started compromising it to show more ads.

    • username_1@discuss.tchncs.de
      76·
      2 days ago

      That draining has nothing to do with AI and started long before the LLM boom. That’s my point. I don’t argue with “results are bad”.

      • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        191·
        2 days ago

        Given that they’ve demonstrated their willingness to compromise the quality of their search results, AND they are pushing AI really hard, is it in any way a stretch to say that they have a vested interest in making search worse to push people towards using Gemini?

        • username_1@discuss.tchncs.de
          31·
          2 days ago

          Doubt that. Their search engine is a golden goose here and now. And what is Gemini? The idea of some other guy in this thread that the engine is more or less ok but the data itself is shitty sounds more plausible to me than Google is trying to push its own LLM by killing search engine.

          • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            13·
            2 days ago

            Their search engine is a golden goose here and now

            Correction, their ad market is a golden goose, their search engine is merely a funnel to push ads to users.

            And what is Gemini

            Their LLM.

            more plausible to me than Google is trying to push its own LLM by killing search engine.

            So for some reason you can accept that they’re killing their search for the sake of ads, but not for the sake of AI?

          • teslekova@lemmy.mlEnglish
            21·
            2 days ago

            What is Gemini? So you’re arguing against the hypothesis without even cursory knowledge on the topic?

            • username_1@discuss.tchncs.de
              12·
              2 days ago

              Facepalm. No, read it as “Search engine is a golden goose, while Gemini is nothing worth mentioning in comparison”. And don’t even try to pretend that it wasn’t obvious.