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Study: Young users (9 to 18Y) ditch Google for AI, with unknown consequences

66 points · 119 comments · giuliomagnifico

  1. lordnacho · · focus · HN ↗
    AI is my default for just about any search now. From today:

    How did Cantor come up with his diagonal proof? It seems to have been dreamed out of nowhere

    Why are there advertisements for a shampoo containing caffeine? Does caffeine do something useful other than when you drink it?

    What happens in sense and sensibility?

    All of them give a decent answer, with the ability to ask follow ups. Eg, how does S&S compare with Pride and Prejudice? What about more recent novels connecting romantic choices with economic choices?

    All of them give you links to source material, in case you suspect they are just making it up.

    At the start of the millennium, Google search changed everything about how I look for information. Now it seems outdated.

    1. JKCalhoun · · focus · HN ↗
      Agree, I've been bypassing search engines for a year now (hint: not a young user either).

      Advertising killed search.

      1. mrweasel · · focus · HN ↗
        While I still use search engines I can't fault anyone from relying on the AI features in Google, rather than the search, as that's clearly not working anymore. Unless you're looking for something rather specific you're going the get drowned in SEO spam and ads. We're back at you having to be a bit of a wizard to trick Google into finding stuff for you anymore.

        I don't really like LLMs or AI assisted tools, but I think they are really good for "explain this configuration, tell me what it does, and link to the documentation". Then read the AI summary, verify with the actual docs and go from there. It's almost always the easier path to understanding, for me at least.

      2. weavie · · focus · HN ↗
        How long until adverts are injected into LLMs?
        1. busssard · · focus · HN ↗
          will you ever know?
        2. Phemist · · focus · HN ↗
          Watermarking, contextually biasing llms to output specific tokens, can be rather easily usurped for ads.

          The advertiser can buy logit "boosts" to specific tokens in a given context (the more preceding context, the cheaper). Once an activation has happened, dont do it again for the session.

          The LLM will end up pushing a specific product contextual to the conversation. It just needs this slight nudge at the logit level to start talking about it and will fill in the rest.

      3. CompoundEyes · · focus · HN ↗
        A black and white text interface, no ads, popups, just a best effort at answering my question is such a relief.

        For younger people accessing information in this way is definitely a win.

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