"You searched Google. The AI hallucinated an answer. Who's legally responsible?"
While I oppose the ongoing efforts to weaken Section 230, I do not support calls to extend its protection to AI-created answers such as #Google's Search AI Overviews. -L
https://www.vox.com/technology/351189/google-ai-overview-section-230
@lauren if Google is creating the answer rather than just passing through someone else’s answer then I don’t see how 230 can, or should, apply.
@wordshaper Exactly.
That's the magic dance of AI training liability. Copyright liability? Of course there's nothing of the original in our trained AI. Content liability? Of course that's just text from some original source we aren't liable for.
Schrodinger's derived work.
@wrosecrans @lauren on the one hand AI generated work is non-copyrightable at the moment, but it’s a much tougher argument to say “the output which we created after applying large amounts of transformative compute is really the same as the source it came from”. That kinda implies that copyright passes through transformation, and that has a *lot* of (frankly bad) implications.
@wordshaper @wrosecrans I have a definite sense that Google has crossed the Rubicon, and not in a good way. There are so many factors that have led up to this in so many areas. I could make a long list. But honestly, it's more of an overall sense. I've seen this happen to other large firms before, when they reacted incorrectly to changing market conditions, and ultimately destroyed the fine balance between management, employees, and customers/users. And I'll add, once the joy is gone, the path almost inevitably leads to decline. I frankly no longer feel that I can depend on Gmail being around in its current form in five years. My faith in Google Search has eroded enormously, and that was happening before SGE/AI Overviews, which are pretty much the nail in the coffin. People keep asking me for what I recommend as an alternative to Google -- right now I can't answer that, but unforced errors have broken Google in major ways now, and we all know the ultimate fate of Humpty Dumpty.
@lauren @wordshaper @wrosecrans
Chat Gpt much better
@lauren @wordshaper One weird thing about Google "crossing their rubicon" is that MS announced an equally large footgun at basically the same time.
Historically, a company like Google miscalculating so badly would be met by a competitor stepping in to take advantage. But most of Google's peers insist on putting the same amount of exactly the same egg on their face right now, which seems unprecedented.
It would be so easy for MS to not piss away trust while Google shoots itself in the foot.
@wrosecrans @wordshaper The only analogy that comes to mind in the tech space is cryptocurrencies/NFTs. It seems likely that generative AI may ultimately enormously exceed the extraordinary damage done by those.
@lauren @wrosecrans the only vaguely hopeful thing is that some of the really clever pattern recognition stuff underlying the generative nonsense is actually useful.
@wrosecrans @lauren Sundar is, let’s be honest, not that clever or creative, which isn’t a dig — those are core competencies and characteristics of CEOs. He’s wrapped up in the cultural insanity that is rich Silicon Valley, which first brought us stupid layoffs done deeply stupidly, and then this AI bullshit.
It’s fundamentally incapable of doing what is asked of if, and at some point it will collapse because it can’t not. Google will (and should) suffer a lot of damage from this.
@wordshaper @wrosecrans I'm pleased that I had the opportunity to see the inside of Google during what we can reasonably call its heyday. I had the same experiences with DEC and Bell Labs, and ... memories.
@wrosecrans @lauren @wordshaper vice versa: MS shot itself in the foot first, and Google is following when it could have maintained striving for a more sensible search experience
@lauren @wrosecrans the alternative to Google products is “pay for your stuff” tbh. Which a lot of folks aren’t happy about, and to be fair to them there’s a lot of stuff that’s increasingly hard to pay for.
Frankly the world would be a better place if Marc Andreessen and a few others used FSD mode on their teslas more often.
@wordshaper @wrosecrans A lot of people can't afford to pay, but need these services now as much as anyone else, given so many traditional alternatives have been decimated by so many firms.
@lauren @wrosecrans yeah, that’s the killer. The free services have killed off the pay services so even if you do want to pay you can’t.