If you’re in the US, you might see a new shaded section at the top of your Google Search results with a summary answering your inquiry, along with links for more information. That section, generated by Google’s generative AI technology, used to appear only if you’ve opted into the Search Generative Experience(SGE) in the Search Labs platform. Now, according to Search Engine Land, Google has started adding the experience on a “subset of queries, on a small percentage of search traffic in the US.” And that is why you could be getting Google’s experimental AI-generated section even if you haven’t switched it on.

    • skooks@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Isn’t it the training of the models which is the most energy intensive? whereas generating some text in answer to a question is probably not super intensive. Caveat: I know nothing

      • Alex@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        Yes training is the most expensive but it’s still an additional trillion or so floating point operations per generated token of output. That’s not nothing computationally.

  • MyNamesNotRobert@lemmynsfw.com
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    9 months ago

    Normal search results are already littered with useless ai generated seo optimized crap. It’s got to the point where sometimes it’s quicker to learn the knowledge you seek the old fashion way: by reading books.

    Enshitification must lose.

    • bbuez@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      🤓 Well you see actually we trained all our models off all historical text written by humans so it will be more human and you don’t have to read again

      Ive seen akin to this sentiment online and its very baffling

      • MyNamesNotRobert@lemmynsfw.com
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        9 months ago

        Oh, they trained their ais off of that all right… And then filtered out all the stuff they didn’t like such as useful information.

      • Belgdore@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        I just assume that these people never have any problems that they have to solve personally. Otherwise they would be frustrated by the inability to find necessary information. They are either rich or children or both.

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    oh that’s that same shit that bing does that ends up filling the top quarter of my search results page with useless chatGPT garbage that doesn’t help my search query (both my employer and my school have forced edge+bing as the standard browser and it makes me want to die)

  • Clbull@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    This may actually be a net improvement to the Google Search experience, since the engine is borderline unusable without uBlock Origin. But also it feels weird that Google would make an AI generated prompt the focal point and not the entire rows of sponsored ads that litter all search results.

    How did the big tech industry get this terminally stupid?

  • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Almost every time I ask a direct question, the two AI answers almost always directly contradict each other. Yesterday I asked if vinegar cuts grease. I received explanations for both why its an excellent grease cutter, and why it doesn’t because it’s an acid.

    • time_fo_that@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I think this will be a major issue with AI. Just because it was trained on a huge wealth of knowledge doesn’t mean that it was trained on correct knowledge.

    • Murdoc@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Showing different viewpoints in order to not appear biased. It’s the cornerstone of democracy after all.

      😛

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Yes, you can cure cancer according to the results…

    1. Dr Williams Oz. Cancer pill center 3)I ate a corn dog and it cured my can…
    2. research into cancer cures has come u…
    3. at McDonald’s we too have canc…
    4. the best cancer cures by Motley Fo…
    5. top 20 best ways to iPhone your canc…
  • time_fo_that@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I got a Google Gemini “text message” in Google messages today. I couldn’t find a way to turn it off, so I just blocked and reported it as spam lol

  • spyd3r@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    Just give me back the results from the 00’s era of google. They need to go backwards not ““forwards””.

  • eronth@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Lol. The generated result that is incomplete and slower than the rest of the search. I usually scroll past it because it’s not done generating. If it does generate fast enough, it’s usually too vague or broad