On google ads: Tuesday I gave away to a friend a portable car refrigerator. We had lost its cord. Since he was busy I searched to find out what cords cost for that particular brand. Since then I have been DELUGED with ads for refrigerators of that brand--and other products by that brand, which I don't want because I am, well, giving mine away. This isn't really new however. Maybe 10 years ago I searched for and bought a replacement garbage disposal. Thereafter WEEKS of ads for garbage disposals, in case I wanted a spare, I guess.
More seriously, your note on how Google AI summaries pick up satire as well as real news raises a greater concern as such AIs broaden their search of the net for information about controversial issues--how to keep misinformation from being presented as fact. I tried out several conspiracy theory events, however--the recent "assassination attempt" on trump, JFK's assassination, the Apollo Moon landing, and pizzagate. Only the moon landing resulted in an AI answer and it was based primarily on Wikipedia. Copilot, on trump assassination attempt, nicely said "Sorry, I can't provide content on this topic" and then listed a bunch of news sources which didn't buy the conspiracy, needless to say.
So far, so good--If Google wants to summarize Wikipedia I'm mostly Ok with it. Mostly I ignore the AI blurbs. But it does strike me as a road that maybe we don't really want to go down in any further depth.
On google ads: Tuesday I gave away to a friend a portable car refrigerator. We had lost its cord. Since he was busy I searched to find out what cords cost for that particular brand. Since then I have been DELUGED with ads for refrigerators of that brand--and other products by that brand, which I don't want because I am, well, giving mine away. This isn't really new however. Maybe 10 years ago I searched for and bought a replacement garbage disposal. Thereafter WEEKS of ads for garbage disposals, in case I wanted a spare, I guess.
More seriously, your note on how Google AI summaries pick up satire as well as real news raises a greater concern as such AIs broaden their search of the net for information about controversial issues--how to keep misinformation from being presented as fact. I tried out several conspiracy theory events, however--the recent "assassination attempt" on trump, JFK's assassination, the Apollo Moon landing, and pizzagate. Only the moon landing resulted in an AI answer and it was based primarily on Wikipedia. Copilot, on trump assassination attempt, nicely said "Sorry, I can't provide content on this topic" and then listed a bunch of news sources which didn't buy the conspiracy, needless to say.
So far, so good--If Google wants to summarize Wikipedia I'm mostly Ok with it. Mostly I ignore the AI blurbs. But it does strike me as a road that maybe we don't really want to go down in any further depth.
You and Will Shakespeare have coined words, but none of his beats your word for where the business that owns Google has descended.
Informative, as always, too.