We have all seen AI-based searches available on the web like Copilot, Perplexity, DuckAssist etc, which scour the web for information, present them in a summarized form, and also cite sources in support of the summary.
But how do they know which sources are legitimate and which are simple BS ? Do they exercise judgement while crawling, or do they have some kind of filter list around the “trustworthyness” of various web sources ?
Pretty much anything tech support, it gives you options which no longer exist anymore because the solution it is suggesting is from a slightly older windows/android version and the UI changed so the option is no longer where it thinks.
Also asking if particular wildlife in in a particular location. Tried asking it if polar bears were in a location I’m going to visit and it said yes, but a quick search through its sources confirmed that was false and the nearest Polar bears are hundreds of miles away.
But why not ask it for a source if this is information that has some critical piece to it. It’s right far more than it’s wrong and works as a great tool to speed up learning. I’m really interested in people sharing what prompts they used and the wrong answers it produced.
What’s the point of AI if you need to search for the source to make sure it’s right everytime? Just skip a step and search for a source first thing.
There’s so many ways to answer this that I’m surprised it’s asked in the first place. AI is not some be all end all of knowledge. It’s a tool like any other.