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Stop using generative AI as a search engine (www.theverge.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

So, if it isn't important, you just want an answer, and you don't care whether it's correct or not?

[–] bradd@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I use LLMs before search especially when I'm exploring all possibilities, it usually gives me some good leads.

I somehow know when it's going to be accurate or when it's going to lie to me and I lean on tools for calculations, being time aware, and web search to help with the lies.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I somehow know when it's going to be accurate

Are you familiar with Dunning-Kruger?

[–] bradd@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Sure but you can benchmark accuracy and LLMs are trained on different sets of data using different methods to improve accuracy. This isn't something you can't know, and I'm not claiming to know how, I'm saying that with exposure I have gained intuition, and as a result have learned to prompt better.

Ask an LLM to write powershell vs python, it will be more accurate with python. I have learned this through exposure. I've used many many LLMs, most are tuned to code.

Currently enjoying llama3.3:70b by the way, you should check it out if you haven't.

[–] 0oWow@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The same can be said about the search results. For search results, you have to use your brain to determine what is correct and what is not. Now imagine for a moment if you were to use those same brain cells to determine if the AI needs a check.

AI is just another way to process the search results, that happens to give you the correct answer up front, most of the time. If you go blindly trust it, that's on you.

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

With the search results, you know what the sources are. With AI, you don't.

[–] 0oWow@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

If you knew what the sources were, you wouldn't have needed to search in the first place. Just because it's on a reputable website does not make it legit. You still have to reason.