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Google Search Is Now a Giant Hallucination (gizmodo.com)

submitted 5 months ago by RGB@group.lt to c/technology@lemmy.world

192 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Google rolled out AI overviews across the United States this month, exposing its flagship product to the hallucinations of large language models.

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[–] SeattleRain@lemmy.world 24 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Does anyone have a realistic idea of how this happened? I get Google has been fallen off for awhile but they're still a multi billion dollar company.

[–] Vivendi@lemmy.zip 26 points 5 months ago (1 children)

AI doesn't exist. It's a huge model that aggregates existing shit with some filler content to glue it all together. It is not sentient, it's not creative, it's literally a stochastic parrot

So, when the original content is garbage, the output is also garbage. Shit in shit out when you train from fucking Reddit

[–] asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I mean, isn't garbage in garbage out also true of humans?

[–] ComplexLotus@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Humans may test garbage knowledge in real life and experience failure. So in that sense no?

[–] asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Ah, interesting. So is the difference that a true AI would understand how to use the scientific method to test inputs?

[–] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 23 points 5 months ago

Worked for a company that had google as a client:

Google sucks, everyone who works there is an idiot who sniffs their ass all day, nothing works, nothing gets fixed, it's all just held together with duct tape.

[–] BaskinRobbins@sh.itjust.works 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I can't imagine a ton of the people working there give a shit anymore when it seems like thousands of people are being layed off weekly while the company takes in billions in profit

[–] SeattleRain@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

So like a quit quitting revolt.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 20 points 5 months ago

Easy: worse results with more ads means more searches and thus more ad impressions, therefore profit.

That'll only work for so long, but that seems to be what they're doing.

[–] trollbearpig@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I'm probably late, but in this case this is the combinations of 2 things.

The usual capitalistic incentives ruined yet another company. There was a recent article about how Google pushed out the people who builded and maintaned search on favor of MBA growth focused assholes. Like they put the guy that was Yahoo's CEO while Yahoo search was crumbling, in charge of Google search to get him to increase the amount of searches they serve, and ads obviously. People keep suggesting to use DDG, or Kagi, or some other comercial product. And for now, we must because Google is basically useless right now. But just give time to the other companies to fall in the same trap hahaha.
LLMs are not smart, not even close. They are just a parlor trick that has non technical people fooled. There is a lot of evidence to me, but to me the most obvious one is that they don't have anything resembling human short term memory. Like the way they make them look like they are having a conversation is by providing the entire conversation up to that point, including their own previous responses lol, as input/context so the bot autocompletes the conversation. It literally can't remember a single word of what you said on it's own. But sureee, they are just like humans lol.

So what we have here is obvious, we have a company trying to grow like cancer by any means necessary. And now they have a technology that allows them to create enough smoke and mirrors to fool non technical people. Sadly, as part of this they are also destroying the last places of the internet not fully controlled by corporations. Let's hope lemmy survives, but it's just a matter of time before they flood this place too.

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world -1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

including their own previous responses lol, as input/context so the bot autocompletes the conversation. It literally can’t remember a single word of what you said on it’s own.

Chatgpt has had memory from previous conversations for about a month now and it's context window is no longer fixed. Additionally it has the ability to assign sentences to memory on its own. So if it "thinks" what you said is important it saves it.

[–] trollbearpig@lemmy.world -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Can you point me to the paper/article/whatever where this is being discussed please? I'm actually interested on learning about it. Even if I don't like the way they are using the technology, I'm still a programmer at hearth and would love to read about this.

To the point of the conversation, honestly man that was just an example of the many problems I see with this. But you have to understand that people like you keep asking us for proof that LLMs are not smart. But come on man, you are the ones claiming you solved the hard problem of mind, on the first try no less hahaha. You are the ones with the burden of proof here and you have provided nothing of the sort. Do better people or stop trying to confuse us with retoric.

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I mean it's just the release notes. Go to their website. I have used the memory feature myself on the app so know it's working and as for the context window it can actually tell you what it is for each session.

But you have to understand that people like you keep asking us for proof that LLMs are not smart.

Where? Where have I asked that? Don't strawman me, I am not your punching bag and won't defend something I didn't say. You can "come on man" all you want but it won't change my answer. I have made zero claims if this thing is smart or asked anyone to weight in on the issue either way.

I pointed out two features it has now, which I don't think anyone can dispute that it does have those features. It has a larger context window and memory that it can update. That is all I said, a very small claim that you can prove for yourself in under five minutes by going to their website.

[–] trollbearpig@lemmy.world -1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Oh, you are talking about this https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8590148-memory-faq hahahaha. I'm sorry man, but you are a moron or arguing in bad faith. That's yet another feature where they inject even more shit in the context/input to make it feel like the thing has memory. That's literally yet another example of what I was pointing out, so thanks for confirming my suspicions. Seriously dude, do better if you really want to have a conversation. Your response made me waste my time, and on top of that you insult me hahaha.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago

Always remember that having more money doesn't mean someone (or some entity) is more capable or intelligent. It just means they have way more latitude to fuck up, higher potential to hurt more people, and less chance of facing negative consequences when they do.