finally, all my question answered definitively.

(and yes, before someone suggests it, i do know how to turn these functions off in google, bing, duckduckgo, etc. there may or may not be a lot of AI-adjacent work here at the moment so unfortunately these features stay on in my work browsers/search engines for behavior comparison.)

(and, yes *sigh* this focus is definitely motivating me to resume my "next step" search, but i'll save that for another place and time.)

I just don't understand the full-tilt run toward AI when it's still giving demonstrably inaccurate, if not dangerous information. It feels like a colossal waste of time, and i don't want to help those grifters refine their product one iota.

(i totally get that part of your job is testing and comparing this stuff, no knock on what you're doing)

@wjcstp right? and it's one continued embarrassment of poor performance after another, with every company doubling down on the more of the same without revising their tactics. "well, it told our users to make pizza with glue, but HEY look at how confident it is!"

@wjcstp Because MBA’s have decided that it’s going to make SOMEONE billions of dollars! And because people are gullible.

@wjcstp Because everyone else is doing it and if you don't have AI baked into your product you'll look like an old fuddy duddy? Also because people with more power than commonsense see dollar signs.

I think this is a pretty good description of why the full tilt run is happening: https://ferd.ca/the-gap-...