Why Google Bard vs. Microsoft Bing will fail: AI's Clippy.
Imagine your company hired a hot new executive so desirable that a competing firm hired a lookalike. Their buzz is intoxicating. The CEO and stockholders agree this individual is the business's future.
The executive has a "hallucination problem(Opens in a new tab)." They're 15–20% likely to lie every time they speak (Opens in a new tab). Princeton professors call him a nonsense generator (Opens in a new tab). They cannot distinguish fact from fantasy (Opens in a new tab). In five minutes, they'll present a new product onstage. Still highlight them?
This week, Microsoft and Google said yes. Microsoft organized a surprise event to announce OpenAI would bring ChatGPT-style search to Bing and Edge, inspired by ChatGPT's 100 million monthly active users two months after its inception. Google announced Bard, an AI search tool, the day before and introduced it in Paris the day after, but it had its own hallucinatory issue.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told reporters invited to Redmond, Wash. Tuesday, "A new race starts today." Isn't it lovely to think so? Microsoft, the perpetually uncool tech kid, wants you to think Bing—sorry, "the New Bing"—is competing with Google search on everything.
Google's Bard pre-response was condescending: "We re-oriented the organization around AI six years ago," wrote Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Google's "hallucination problem"
Quite telling. Google, the search leader, has had years to add AI, but its ChatGPT opponent, Bard, is only in beta with a few testers. The Bard unveiling was messy despite Pichai's hipster attitude. ChatGPT chatter also took Google off guard.
How else to explain the awful Bard blunder on full show at launch—not at the event, when demo flubs are expected, but in a pre-made GIF? A user asks Bard for James Webb Space Telescope facts for his 9-year-old.
The JWST did not photograph the first exoplanet. Bard hallucinated (Opens in a new tab). (UPDATE: A Financial Times writer argues Bard's phrases were technically accurate(Opens in a new tab), but that requires a reading of the language no human would ever use—another problem with AI search.)
The Bard launch cost Alphabet 8% of its share price. Google highlighted AI search's key issue and suggested it can't fact-check itself with its massive data.
Google should know better since it had a "hallucination problem" with its highlighted snippets at the top of search results in 2017. The snippets algorithm enjoyed lying about U.S. presidents. Again, what's wrong?
See also: Trust no one: Online learning guidelines
Thus, launching an AI search tool too early risks playing yourself. Microsoft was lucky that its launch event had no visible mistakes. Why is ChatGPT-based search in beta if it's error-free? Bing has an unpaid AI QA sign-up sheet (Opens in a new tab).
Sarah Bird, Microsoft's Head of Responsible AI (a revealing title), told Wired regarding ChatGPT's hallucination problem, "There's still more to do there" (Opens in a new tab). Yes, a business building a ChatGPT fact-checker provided the 15% hallucination figure (Opens in a new tab). (UPDATE: a New York Times columnist's frantic piece on New Bing(Opens in a new tab) showed that it couldn't even do basic algebra or offer local kid-friendly activities.)
Bird stated that previous versions of the software might help users plot a school shooting, but this functionality was removed. Nice! What might go wrong? This hallucinogenic beta search product cannot have any other unforeseen consequences that could humiliate a huge and legally vulnerable tech corporation.
Clippy. Zune. Bing.
Microsoft, which created Clippy, knows shame. Paperclip assistants were known for giving bad advise. We ask ChatGPT questions, unlike Clippy.
However, ChatGPT-enabled Bing often hallucinates its responses or gives users a humdrum variation on "I can't answer that." "New Bing" will be known for distorted results if enough casual users obtain them.
Even if a product improves, its initial popularity can make it a punchline. Microsoft handed us the Zune. Launching a ChatGPT product prematurely is the same.
"The New Bing" begs to be a joke. Are you ready to switch from Google search and Chrome to Bing and Edge if Bing wins the AI search race, whatever "winning" means? Doubtful. Tech inertia is vastly underestimated. http://sentrateknikaprima.com/
ChatGPT impresses real estate brokers for listing-writing but frightens others. Once you look beyond the headline, every disruption tale looks less important. It'll spark student plagiarism! It neutralizes its own threat by telling you when ChatGPT wrote a paper (Opens in a new tab). Law school exam passed! It barely passed with a C-plus (Opens in a new tab).
Building "universal AI," or a digital brain, is difficult. Another long-term AI target, insect intelligence, is barely underway. Will you trust ChatGPT to offer search results instead of clicking on links?
Dear reader, it may depend on your hallucination problem. https://ejtandemonium.com/
Imagine your company hired a hot new executive so desirable that a competing firm hired a lookalike. Their buzz is intoxicating. The CEO and stockholders agree this individual is the business's future.
The executive has a "hallucination problem(Opens in a new tab)." They're 15–20% likely to lie every time they speak (Opens in a new tab). Princeton professors call him a nonsense generator (Opens in a new tab). They cannot distinguish fact from fantasy (Opens in a new tab). In five minutes, they'll present a new product onstage. Still highlight them?
This week, Microsoft and Google said yes. Microsoft organized a surprise event to announce OpenAI would bring ChatGPT-style search to Bing and Edge, inspired by ChatGPT's 100 million monthly active users two months after its inception. Google announced Bard, an AI search tool, the day before and introduced it in Paris the day after, but it had its own hallucinatory issue.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told reporters invited to Redmond, Wash. Tuesday, "A new race starts today." Isn't it lovely to think so? Microsoft, the perpetually uncool tech kid, wants you to think Bing—sorry, "the New Bing"—is competing with Google search on everything.
Google's Bard pre-response was condescending: "We re-oriented the organization around AI six years ago," wrote Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Google's "hallucination problem"
Quite telling. Google, the search leader, has had years to add AI, but its ChatGPT opponent, Bard, is only in beta with a few testers. The Bard unveiling was messy despite Pichai's hipster attitude. ChatGPT chatter also took Google off guard.
How else to explain the awful Bard blunder on full show at launch—not at the event, when demo flubs are expected, but in a pre-made GIF? A user asks Bard for James Webb Space Telescope facts for his 9-year-old.
The JWST did not photograph the first exoplanet. Bard hallucinated (Opens in a new tab). (UPDATE: A Financial Times writer argues Bard's phrases were technically accurate(Opens in a new tab), but that requires a reading of the language no human would ever use—another problem with AI search.)
The Bard launch cost Alphabet 8% of its share price. Google highlighted AI search's key issue and suggested it can't fact-check itself with its massive data.
Google should know better since it had a "hallucination problem" with its highlighted snippets at the top of search results in 2017. The snippets algorithm enjoyed lying about U.S. presidents. Again, what's wrong?
See also: Trust no one: Online learning guidelines
Thus, launching an AI search tool too early risks playing yourself. Microsoft was lucky that its launch event had no visible mistakes. Why is ChatGPT-based search in beta if it's error-free? Bing has an unpaid AI QA sign-up sheet (Opens in a new tab).
Sarah Bird, Microsoft's Head of Responsible AI (a revealing title), told Wired regarding ChatGPT's hallucination problem, "There's still more to do there" (Opens in a new tab). Yes, a business building a ChatGPT fact-checker provided the 15% hallucination figure (Opens in a new tab). (UPDATE: a New York Times columnist's frantic piece on New Bing(Opens in a new tab) showed that it couldn't even do basic algebra or offer local kid-friendly activities.)
Bird stated that previous versions of the software might help users plot a school shooting, but this functionality was removed. Nice! What might go wrong? This hallucinogenic beta search product cannot have any other unforeseen consequences that could humiliate a huge and legally vulnerable tech corporation.
Clippy. Zune. Bing.
Microsoft, which created Clippy, knows shame. Paperclip assistants were known for giving bad advise. We ask ChatGPT questions, unlike Clippy.
However, ChatGPT-enabled Bing often hallucinates its responses or gives users a humdrum variation on "I can't answer that." "New Bing" will be known for distorted results if enough casual users obtain them.
Even if a product improves, its initial popularity can make it a punchline. Microsoft handed us the Zune. Launching a ChatGPT product prematurely is the same.
"The New Bing" begs to be a joke. Are you ready to switch from Google search and Chrome to Bing and Edge if Bing wins the AI search race, whatever "winning" means? Doubtful. Tech inertia is vastly underestimated. http://sentrateknikaprima.com/
ChatGPT impresses real estate brokers for listing-writing but frightens others. Once you look beyond the headline, every disruption tale looks less important. It'll spark student plagiarism! It neutralizes its own threat by telling you when ChatGPT wrote a paper (Opens in a new tab). Law school exam passed! It barely passed with a C-plus (Opens in a new tab).
Building "universal AI," or a digital brain, is difficult. Another long-term AI target, insect intelligence, is barely underway. Will you trust ChatGPT to offer search results instead of clicking on links?
Dear reader, it may depend on your hallucination problem. https://ejtandemonium.com/
