I have kept wondering why people have kept talking about Chatgpt as a replacement for search engines. Despite getting some examples from people, it did not really click for me until just now, when I listened to Merlin Mann on the latest episode of Back to work. It is about cutting through all the perceived clutter, spam, popups, and other things which risk burying actually interesting search results these days. It is because right now, the somewhat curated set of data from which Chatgpt generates its answers feels like a better source of information than the ad-laden internet as processed by modern search algorithms.
I am pretty sure I had heard some version of that before, too, but, again, sometimes you need to hear something in just the right way for it to click.
If this concept of language models as search survives in any form, I am sure that impression will come tumbling down pretty quickly. The same people will, after all, be offering both services. Data sets will change, and the same interests which sneak ads in among search results and promote content with certain traits will start working on large language models too. LLMO would be the new SEO, and then everyone would be talking wistfully about the age before ads ruined our chat bots.
Perhaps what this points to is that a search engine doing much more careful curation of what it indexes could be valuable?
Meta writing
Tapping this down along with my morning tea, on the Mac mini using my Corne. I think I enjoy these switches less the more rarely I use them. This is the first time in a while I write this many words in a row using them (about a month ago, in fact. Oh look, I wrote pretty much the same thing back then …), and I am making strange mistakes like entering double spaces. And there is always that feeling that I have to press just that little bit harder than feels comfortable or quick, and that the result is a little too dependent on having just the right angle.
I may not be in the market for a new keyboard - yet! But I think it is high time I sit down and swap out the switches.
Anyway, morning writing: it is pretty nice. Time for work, a podcast recording, and whatever else the day might have in store ☕️