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Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by unxdfa on Friday March 10, 2023 @02:24AM (#35091475)
I agree. However the ChatGPT situation is the first hype that’s really been harmful rather than just disruptive. It can and is being used to generate low accuracy noise which degrades quality information. I suspect our demise isn’t going to be a big bang but a slow fizzle of information decay. And this is the start of it. At best it’s going to make us stupider.
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by fock on Friday March 10, 2023 @02:48AM (#35091627)
recently I tried to search for CO2-consumption (as in usage as an industrial gas) on Google. It didn't return 1 useful hit, everything was about emissions.

So: We are already there, all without ChatGPT... ChatGPT (with its cool ways to make it nondeterministic, like: replacing tokens with synonyms and raising the temperature. Or: retraining it...) will make things worse definitely.

Probably the way to go is for {academia,sects,orgs with sense for humanity,...} to build stores of attributable information and then start shunning the branches which produce bullshit (this is what scientific publishing should do already.... it doesn't... even without ChatGPT there's already templated articles strewn around the corpus and noone cares). The main issue there is, that this means that they will also have to stop using a lot of technology (and buy a 32nm foundry...), because many orgs are probably already poisoned.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by mtlmtlmtlmtl on Friday March 10, 2023 @03:21AM (#35091896)
I went and searched for "CO2 industrial applications -emissions" without the quotes.

This was the first result: https://applications.messergroup.com/co2-applications

There were a number of other relevant results. Papers on various applications of CO2, forum posts, etc. Nothing on emissions.

Sure google is a lot worse these days than it used to be, but it still seems plenty usable to me and I have no issues finding what I want with some basic operators.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by Crosseye_Jack on Friday March 10, 2023 @04:38AM (#35092406)
> with some basic operators

The problem in my imo is that Google was good enough that basic operators were not required, as such the avg Joe is amazed when finding out that they exist, and Google doesn’t really promote the advanced search page these days.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by yunohn on Friday March 10, 2023 @05:35AM (#35092752)
I’m not sure why GP used the minus operator - I omitted that part and still got results about usage and not emissions.
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by fock on Friday March 10, 2023 @05:59AM (#35092915)
I want to get statistics and numbers. I'm aware of the applications. GPs suggestions didn't really help me either.
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by mtlmtlmtlmtl on Friday March 10, 2023 @06:18AM (#35093021)
Did another search for "industrial consumption of CO2", again without the quotes, and found this: https://www.iea.org/reports/putting-co2-to-use

Sure this talks a lot about emissions, but it also seems to include a detailed breakdown of various industrial uses for CO2, with numbers, projections, statistics and all.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by yunohn on Friday March 10, 2023 @08:44AM (#35094221)
https://www.iea.org/reports/putting-co2-to-use

First result for “co2 industrial usage numbers”, without quotes - just like the sibling comment.

You need to specify atleast a few keywords to clarify what you’re looking for - search engine nor llm chatbot nor HN commenters can read your mind…

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by mtlmtlmtlmtl on Friday March 10, 2023 @06:03AM (#35092933)
Specifically because they said they only found stuff on emissions. Never tried it without.

It's one of the most common patterns I come across. I search word X but find a bunch of word Y stuff that's not what I'm looking for, because word X and Y appear together a lot in Y's context. So I add -Y to the query.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by msrenee on Friday March 10, 2023 @09:47AM (#35094895)
Google has gotten way better at interpreting search queries formulated like natural speech. It used to be you had to know what sort of keywords together would get you the results you were interested in. Now I can type in "what is the capital of France" and have a Wikipedia article about Paris pop up, an Encyclopedia Brittanica entry, and World Population Review for the city. That wouldn't have been the case in 2005.

It's become a tool that basically anyone can at least get some information out of. Googling used to be a skill that non-technical people struggled with.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by greenie_beans on Friday March 10, 2023 @10:09AM (#35095250)
i feel like it's been half decent at that for at least a decade? that's my typical way to google something dumb like "how do know if my dog sprained or broke?
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by msrenee on Friday March 10, 2023 @10:57PM (#35105122)
2005 is well over a decade ago and that's very much on the conservative end of when I remember the selection of search terms as being very important and a sort of art form.
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by raspberry1337 on Friday March 10, 2023 @03:29AM (#35091964)
The solution is already predicted by scifi. We will start building new sub-internets with stricter, formalised, rules to reduce spam and noise. The outside internet will become the wild, noisy internet where few people reside. It's like in Cyberpunk 2077 where there is the "wall" that keeps all the AI out from the mainstream internet.
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by jonathanstrange on Friday March 10, 2023 @04:17AM (#35092278)
I've been thinking for a while about writing another network on top of IP with decentralized DNS (dealing with domain names similarly to how SSH deals with public keys), make it open-source, free, with a one-click installer, and strictly prohibit any commercial activity on it (no ads, no acting on behalf of a company) or at least make commercial activities selectively opt-in for the end user. The same could be done for bots. Some of the technical aspect are already solved by others but the problem is that such a project would need some larger organizational support with lawyers in order to make the EULA enforceable.

In other words, it's more of a social than a technical issue.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by hnlmorg on Friday March 10, 2023 @06:32AM (#35093114)
I don’t think an EULA will stop bots, spam and scams.

And without commercial buy in, I can’t see why anyone apart from computer geeks and scammers would want to use it. The first question your average users would ask is “why isn’t $SHOP on there”.

Much as I dislike the modern web, it’s what the people have chosen in exchange for free services (like email) and convenience (like online shopping).

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by jonathanstrange on Friday March 10, 2023 @08:30AM (#35094092)
I don't care at all about average users, this network would be an alternative on top of what we have and can be as elitist as the small user group wants. The difficult part is having the power to sue organizations who violate the EULA (a social and financial problem) and getting a decentralized banning system to work (a very tricky technical, distributed social choice problem).
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by hnlmorg on Friday March 10, 2023 @02:28PM (#35099561)
We already have a few options in that domain. ipfs, onion sites (Tor).

And to repeat my earlier point, an EULA isn’t going to keep your vision clean. Malicious actors aren’t going to give a hoot about any EULA. And any business that might take an EULA seriously would simply choose not to use such a minority platform anyway.

Also if this “EULA” is targeting how companies use your platform, then it’s not an EULA. What you’re talking about is a different type of contractual agreement.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by jaggederest on Friday March 10, 2023 @04:56AM (#35092516)
> new sub-internets with stricter, formalised, rules to reduce spam and noise.

I'm not sure more, better rule are going to stop a rule engine from participating. If anything, formalized rules merely makes it easier to train the machine learning system du jour to follow them.

My modest proposal is to go the other direction - fill the entire internet with garbage data so that the generative models trained on it become useless. Clearly there's nothing that could go wrong with this plan.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by qsort on Friday March 10, 2023 @05:22AM (#35092662)
Not rules as in "match this regular expression", rules as in "if I don't know you, you can't join", BBS-style. Which is a bit unfortunate but also definitely what's going to happen.

The masses are still on mainstream platforms, but more and more people are nauseated by the instagrams of this world.

Sooner or later some group will realize it becomes necessary to dissolve the bands which have connected them with another, and you'll have a formal split.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by indigochill on Friday March 10, 2023 @07:43AM (#35093662)
I don't really agree it's unfortunate. I think the "throw everyone into the same pot" has been an unfortunate side effect of the commercializing of communication. BBSes and forums were allowed to grow organically. They weren't for everyone, but anyone who wanted to be a good-faith participant in the conversation was generally welcomed, while baddies were moderated out by moderators who were actually empowered. Some would say over-empowered (there was plenty of drama about moderators having biases and what-not) but then communities could split without people necessarily feeling like they had just been excommunicated from a global forum like Facebook or Twitter.

In short, I think people are wired to do better in smaller groups and I welcome this balkanization, albeit with the caveat that the communities can interconnect and grow/shrink/die/emerge organically to suit the needs of the people within them instead of commercial investors.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by qsort on Friday March 10, 2023 @08:21AM (#35094004)
I'm saying 'unfortunate' because the open internet has some beautiful corners. There is some good in the world, and it's worth fighting for[0].

But on the other hand it's hard to deny that the mainstream internet is getting worse and worse. I grew up with the internet as my nanny, but I'm moving closer and closer to the idea that smaller groups focused on specific interests really do provide better experiences.

Perhaps it was never meant to be, and the sweet spot is just living your life completely offline and using the Internet for Wikipedia and Whatsapp.

[0]: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7444411-it-s-like-in-the-gr...

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by lelanthran on Friday March 10, 2023 @04:00PM (#35100964)
> My modest proposal is to go the other direction - fill the entire internet with garbage data so that the generative models trained on it become useless.

This sounds like a legit use for ChatGPT :-)

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by wpietri on Friday March 10, 2023 @04:59PM (#35101745)
Yup! We can totally automate the citogensis process: https://xkcd.com/978/
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by marginalia_nu on Friday March 10, 2023 @05:42AM (#35092802)
Gemini Protocol?
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by bmacho on Friday March 10, 2023 @07:49AM (#35093715)
I only can imagine that banks, telecoms (and states) verify that you are a real person. Maybe we can have some organizations that disconnect your accounts from your identity. Maybe not, and everyone has to use their real identity. In the times of chatGPT there will be no other way to distinguish real people from bots.

Like how facebook or github account depend on your phone number, or free trials depend on your credit card number.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by blibble on Friday March 10, 2023 @05:34AM (#35092744)
> However the ChatGPT situation is the first hype that’s really been harmful rather than just disruptive.

blockchain?

all that pointless CO2 for nothing

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by unxdfa on Friday March 10, 2023 @08:48AM (#35094261)
That's true. Agree there.
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by chiefalchemist on Friday March 10, 2023 @06:57AM (#35093292)
Noise? We've been suffering from it quite some time now. Once complete control (of information) wasn't possible the next choice has been baffle them with bullshit (and repetition). This is happening on all fronts, all ideologies. Sure some may be more subtle than others but it's everywhere. To believe otherwise is simply naive.

ChatGPT is a symptom that perhaps finally raises discussion of the root problem above the noise. Yeah, ironic.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by lakomen on Friday March 10, 2023 @07:04AM (#35093347)
Information decay has started around the year 2000. I'm not a Hipster, I have experienced the internet pre 2000, which was an semi exclusive club for educated and intelligent people with accurate search results. After the masses poured onto it the results became more half truths and opinions. And now you have "AI" feeding on those half truths and opinions. Whatever could go wrong? However imagine if it was fed with facts only.
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by jvanderbot on Friday March 10, 2023 @07:42AM (#35093655)
Well, you can't train LLM on "facts alone", since they are basically throwing darts at the next word, not using information to craft a message. But I hear your larger point: it'd be nice to have an agent that was trained on wikipedia information, but already spoke a language
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by r3trohack3r on Friday March 10, 2023 @09:16AM (#35094520)
GPT is trained on Wikipedia though.

It’s speculated libgen is in there as well.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by artificial on Friday March 10, 2023 @09:46AM (#35094886)
Let’s not forget Twitter was a training source. Early Twitter was like 4chan.
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by jvanderbot on Friday March 10, 2023 @10:34AM (#35095666)
I think GGP comment started this thread about a knowledge engine, not a "word generator" if that makes sense. Training on Wikipedia in this case means "training to put together words like wikipedia authors do" right? Not "learning the facts of wikipedia to provide useful synthesis and cross referencing." though it probably does OK by accident.
Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by ethbr0 on Friday March 10, 2023 @07:58AM (#35093782)
Imho, info decay took off when social metastasized, which is to say ~2010+.

It was an interesting time, because (from memory) 2000 was still "It's pretty complicated for average person to create and post content on the web" and transitioned to 2010's "There are highly polished, easy to use, free SaaS solutions that a trained dog could use." With mobile versions of same in the next few years. (All dates mass market penetration, not first release)

There was a direct correlation between ease-of-publishing and less intellectual discourse on the web.

"Info decay" was definitely a good way to put it. It wasn't that people were necessarily dumb or angry, but that there was a lot more honestly incorrect information online.

Before, there were crackpots, but it was pretty easy to tell they were crazy.

Having seen both, the banal wrongness is far worse.

I think that's one reason wikipedia really took off ~2005+. People were craving an easier way to get even roughly-right information.

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by Dalewyn on Friday March 10, 2023 @08:20AM (#35093986)
> It can and is being used to generate low accuracy noise which degrades quality information.

I would argue this is a problem stemming from the way "AI" is presented rather than anything to do with "AI" itself.

That is to say, fucking nobody trusts autocorrect to be correct and "AI" is really just a more complex form of autocorrect.

But people hear "AI" and think AI as in Transformers, Terminator, R2-D2, etc. They're intelligent, right? And that's where the presentation is doing significant harm. There is nothing intelligent, let alone sentient, about "AI".

Re:Google dusts off the failed Google+ playbook to fight Cha... by lynx23 on Friday March 10, 2023 @09:43AM (#35094839)
Information decay has started with forums for the masses. It has become increasingly hard to actually find useful advice, because lots of the "answers" you find are actually partly wrong, mostly because people without knowhow feel like they need to answer questions to boost their karma...

Many of my coworkers feel the same. And this started way before GPT was conceived.

Besides, your post somehow feels like generic technology-angst to me. It seems like whenever we invent something new, there are those people that predict this is finally our demise...

GGPT is a tool, like every other technology. Use it wisely, and you will likely benefit. Use it without engaging your brain, and you will like see negative effects.