Overview: Science&Technology

"users encountering the company’s AI-generated summaries atop search results found over and over again that Google was hallucinating or worse... suggested putting nontoxic glue in your pizza... putting gasoline in your spaghetti... reported that just 17 American presidents were white ... that people eat one to three rocks per day", co…

A very sceptical take on "Google’s snorefest of an I/O presentation" and the current point in "the latest hype cycle... how exhausting the whole thing has become a year and a half after the release of ChatGPT".The days of being on the inevitable path to AGI because Silicon Valley had "thrown so much capital and compute&quo;…

"Web search ... more like a rummage sale. Your chance of finding an item that addresses your specific issue... is pretty low. You’re not walking into a custom tailor. You’re in the thrift shop... seeing if you can put something together. Some sewing may be required."This, of course, "is mentally taxing", so either they skim, ad…

Doctorow, pointing out that Google's move to AI search "is a tacit admission that Google is no longer a convenient or reliable way to retrieve information, drowning as it is in AI-generated spam, poorly labeled ads, and SEO garbage". Instead, "you'll ask Google a question and an AI will compose an answer based on things it…

"When Sundar Pichai took the stage at Google I/O ... said that the rise of generative artificial intelligence would provide new opportunities... for everyone". While many products unveiled will be doubtless useful, the picture's unclear for search itself: by end 2024 "Search Generative Experience... will appear at the top of re…