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Thursday, Jan 19, 2023 - 23:56 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Return To Creation


Battle Bunny 2023
(Source: r/singapore)


I'm aware that it's not been a very prolific start to the new year, but there's really a lot going on, amongst that the realization that tending to a new home doesn't stop after moving in. Anyway, after last year's September update on AI art (itself referencing the nascent DeepDaze in April 2021), it's looking like the potential of generative AI (including speech, and frankly much anything one can scrape together a ton of data for) is finally hitting the public consciousness. This more so due to OpenAI's ChatGPT rather than snazzy pictures, however, with Microsoft already aiming to get one over Google with a ten billion dollar bet on the tech.

On ChatGPT, I found it simultaneously somewhat dazzling (e.g. providing code snippets with nifty animations, but more than that offering suggestions with memory of previous interactions), but also kinda bland and uninspired - and often eventually illogical - with its answers in general; of course, the boringness is probably due in large part to the ChatGPT creators imposing a neutral affect, so as not to wind anyone up unnecessarily with controversial responses (as Microsoft should have ample experience with). Suitable prompt engineering has allowed ChatGPT to show off much more of its range, as previously for Midjourney and DALL-E.

Google may indeed be facing its biggest challenge in years yet with this, from how ChatGPT targets by far their biggest and most consistent profit centre: (advertising from) search... and it's not only Microsoft that they have to worry about. Recall, back in the Wild West days of the Internet (thereabouts Y2K), Google crushed all comers (including AskJeeves, a ChatGPT before its time) thanks to its speed, unparalleled result relevance and clean (ad-free) interface, and remains sitting pretty at a global search share of about 84% today.

Few of those advantages are as certain nowadays, however; intrusive advertising and susceptibility to SEO aside, the decline in search quality from Google has become broadly recognized, with one common observation being that it doesn't really obey search operators any longer. In the (long-ago?) past, one could progressively refine search results through judicious refinement of the search phrase (pretty much like prompt engineering, come to think of it), but it seems to be becoming more and more a case of "We will tell you what you want to be searching for" (perhaps partly due to text vector projection collapsing details, and also over-optimization for engagement and other monetarily-relevant metrics)

Some concrete examples of Google's background bias and censorship were evident during the pandemic and before, with one of the most famous being the results it threw up for a query like "I regret getting the Covid vaccine"; instead of personal testimonies, one instead got a bunch of links trying to convince otherwise, I guess because they "own the Science" (in partnership with the United Nations). On this, I expect there to be a real market for a search engine or bot that doesn't presume to inform users what they should be thinking, and one quite hopes Google gets someone to rescue them - like Musk did for Twitter - or get their lunch stolen (possibly by a non-U.S. firm). I won't be mourning too much if that happens.



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