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A comment on Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? Here are some theories. Parent comment

Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by londons_explore on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:42PM (#50486975)
Google search has involved various forms of AI for a decade or more...

All those ranking algorithms that decide which link comes at the top? They use AI.

Sure - it doesn't look like a chatbot, but it's still AI under the covers and they couldn't in good conscious even give you search from 2008 and claim there was no AI involved.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by freecodeio on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:04PM (#50487320)
yes but choosing what link to click and then making up your mind from the contents was not AI
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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by JDups on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:55PM (#50488063)
It's pretty clear that in this context, and in much of the current discussion about "AI", that "AI" is used to mean generative language models.
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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by brainwad on Friday November 13, 2026 @02:55PM (#50488805)
BERT has been in Search for ages. Does that count?
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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by watwut on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:57PM (#50488080)
I find these arguments absurd. You know full well what the schools mean. And that it is not the same thing as objection to 2008 technology. Which was not even called AI in 2008 but technically falls into onw of definitions.
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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by p_l on Friday November 13, 2026 @02:14PM (#50488334)
USA frequently operates on gotchas involving explicit text of the law, not spirit
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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by brainwad on Friday November 13, 2026 @02:58PM (#50488826)
The thing the schools want isn't well founded. Presumably they want their students not to be able to cheat, but a perfect search algorithm also allows them to cheat. As does, e.g. Wolfram Alpha-esque deterministic natural language systems.
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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by watwut on Friday November 13, 2026 @03:37PM (#50489308)
This is kindergarten gotcha logic. It is well founded and clear what they want.
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Re:Why is Google cutting off Search from AI-free schools? He... by brainwad on Friday November 13, 2026 @03:59PM (#50489569)
It really isn't. For example, nobody complained about the previous LLM-based summaries at the top of Google ("web answers"). What is it about AI overviews that is so much worse than them, other than culture war aversion to the word "AI"?
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