Now with the addition of AI, you're as likely to receive misinformation from Google as from anywhere else even if you have a adequate search words.
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I have never utilized ChatGPT or any other artificial intelligence (AI) resource for any reason to this point. I don’t know how it works but I do know that it gets its information from trolling the internet for data (rather like a gay man might troll for...oh never mind!).
So recently, I had a problem with my supervisor over some things that were said about me over a group text. I have written about my dislike for group texts before so I wanted to find that specific text in order to show that it wasn’t simply about the specific group text; it was also about group text in general.
I was a little too lazy at the time to look through my catalogue of previous stories and I am sure we are well aware that the Daily Kos search function...well, has its issues so I’ve taken to simply using what I call the GoogleBoomTube to access my previous stories along with other items.
(As for why I call the Google search engine a “Boom Tube,” here is the origin of the name).
So I type “chitown kev group text” and this is what I got:
accessed at 7:00pm CST 11.28.25
Now this is very similar to what the “AI Mode” said when I first attempted to find the diary over a month ago (that date when I first attempted access using these exact same search words is located near the top right-hand corner.
Back in October, though, I didn’t have the option of whether or not to use “AI Mode”, Google just gave me the AI Mode and a list of links to use.
In the article, I specifically wrote that “I am hooked up to three group texts” and roughly described the members of each group (family, work, and “a group of guys that I am on the same healing journey with”)
One thing I do recall when I first accessed the AI for this particular topic using the search words was that the Google AI “thought” that the group text that I was referring to specifically involved Daily Kos members (I don’t think that it specified the Top Comments crew we have here).
So...since I’m on this topic, I decided to dig a little deeper to see what else Google AI is saying about me and I found this:
oh dear
There is so much wrong with this passage. For starters, that was Brian Broome’s Theo Huxtable essay at MS Now that the entry is referring to and not mine (although I relate somewhat to Brian Broome’s experience with the Theo Huxtable character).
Why it refers to two APR diaries composed almost four months apart and calls the older diary a “subheading” is beyond me.
Leaving aside the politics of everything, I’ve always considered Google to be a search engine par excellence. (Calling it a “GoogleBoomTube” is a complement!) Now with this addition of the AI functions, it’s spitting out as much misinformation as anyone or anything else.
And leaving the rest of us mortals to swim in this toxic stew.
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