We already have the tech for that, why hasn't it happened? People are revolted by the AI results in Google. AI isn't going to make people use their computers more. It's not opening up a new consumer market. This is just making each search infinitely more expensive.
The latest "Thinking" version gets it reliably right but spent about 3 minutes coming up with the answer that 10 seconds of googling answers.
So I don't believe we are currently in a situation where LLMs are an effective replacement for search engines.
And what do you think this'll do for future LLM models that need to train on new content if web page traffic collapses?
I think Google has several ai products with search features?
Which one in your experience "seems correct"?
I'm fascinated because I've never found any LLM to be particularly error free at search.
"Whats the name of the third book in the peripheral trilogy going to be" it just regurgitates some dumb reddit comment by someone who seems to be making things up.
There's no actual title that has been announced and the reddit post was not a reasonable bit of speculation.
The problem with these LLMs is they rarely say "the search results were not credible no response can be provided."
That's basically a UX trick to entirely sidestep being held accountable for the results, but seems sufficient to notify the user about the provenance of the answer to adjust their grains of salt.
This is already happening. I have two teenagers and both of them have stopped using search. They're both using LLM's for almost everything they're looking for. I'll be walking by my son's room and hear him talking and pop my head in, look around and I'm like, "Oh, thought you were talking to someone. You just talking to yourself again? chuckling" My son says "Nah Dad, I'm talking to Gemini about the the differences between the new Flylites and XF skates and which one is actually better."
Instead of typing in some search and then digging through a bunch of reviews and links, LLM's can now do all of your research and footwork for you. The fact Gen Z has latched onto this now means search is dying a much faster death than I think people realize.
Just for some more anecdotal evidence:
I just started a new business with two millennial friends in September. I was still in that mode of "just get the site up, get it indexed and then in a few months, we'll have enough traffic and start getting leads." My partners? "Nah man, search is dead, its all about socials now, nobody uses search, trust us."
We poured about $500/month into FB marketplace, Instagram and TikTok. We created a few original shorts that advertised our new studio. The returns have been pretty staggering. I'm thinking we need 3 years of funding before we start turning a profit. Nope. By concentrating almost solely on socials, we're already cash positive after only 7 months of being in business.
The last few months have really opened my eyes at how much stuff has changed.
Fuller integration into the user's life will bring ever more ad opportunities (and it doesn't matter if the HN base hates that notion, it's going to happen regardless). That'll happen over the next decade gradually.
Shopping, home management, tasks (taxes, accounting, lifestyle, reminders, homework, work work, 800 other things), travel (obvious), advice & general conversation (already there), search (being consumed now), gaming (next 3-5 years to start), full at-work integration (gradual spread across all industries, with more narrow expertise), digital world building (10-15+ years out for mass user adoption). And on the list goes. It's pretty much anything the user can or does touch in life.