I’ve come to think LLMs/GPTs/whatever are a threat to conventional search engines because the modern web is an unbelievably annoying dumpster fire.
👆 big same
They don’t really provide better or faster answers, what they provide is an experience that is not a complete pain in the ass.
1000% agreed with this 👇
On some level, a lot of my own AI-skepticism has been related to the bullshit artistry surrounding the technology. Many of the talking points are very clearly lifted from the crypto space. There is heavy emphasis on FOMO and cult-like, almost eschatological undertones.
eschatological - Christianity related term referencing the end of the world
Entering more code faster doesn’t make the code go faster or make it more correct, it makes it slower and introduces more failure points. It makes for more complicate designs.
Like with AI-powered search engines, the benefit isn’t necessarily that it’s better, but that it’s less of a pain.
this also has me skeptical/concerned about building on top of this tech:
It should perhaps the biggest concern in all this. Since there are so few brokers of large language models, they can unilaterally dictate terms of service. Right now they are pretty good. Free, in many cases, cheap in others. Tomorrow, who even knows what manner of tithe is demanded for continued service. It’s important to recognize the balance of power in this relationship.
Rarely if ever has it been a good deal to be a renter.
Sure, AI search is better now. But they’re going to have the same exact incentives to make it profitable and suck ass just as much as Google Search does now.