SHOULD YOU REPLACE GOOGLE WITH AN AI TOOL?

When you need find the answer to a question or conduct some basic research for a book, what do you do first?

Most people would conduct a Google search, but I’ve heard that some are ditching the long-established search engine for a nifty new AI tool such as Perplexity, and many are switching from resources like Wikipedia to ChatGPT.

Is this a good idea?

The short answer is use them all.

If you’re unfamiliar with any of these AI technologies that are coming at us faster than we can blink, start to play with free versions of them and learn how they can help you gain more from the internet in less time. Each platform, from old-fashioned Google to tomorrow’s new AI tool, has its plusses and minuses, strengths and weaknesses. And they are iterative systems, changing constantly. It can be eye-opening to try different tools. For example, ask Google to tell you “how to scramble eggs” and then use that same prompt in an AI program. Review what each tool returns and compare.

Misinformation and disinformation abound on the internet no matter where you go for answers. Although AI tools currently bear the brunt of criticism for being purveyors of bad information and mis-sourced material, you’ll find plenty of false and misleading material outside of AI—including sites curated solely by humans. And even places like Wikipedia, which has historically been a collaborative, human-edited online encyclopedia, is changing as AI muscles its way in.

So don’t put all your proverbial eggs in one basket. Scramble them out across a variety of tools. Then make yourself the ultimate custodian of what information you deem reliable, trusty, valuable, and useful.

Image credit: Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash