Dr. Andy Farnell Explains How Google Turned From "Librarian" Into "Oracle", Telling Us What to Think Instead of Where to Look
"Inspired a bit by your note on those emetic Google billboards," Andy told me, "popping up around town," is the following new article which says: "The line between "summary" and "interpretation" is neither trivial nor clear. Disappearance of link provenance, of information breadcrumbs permitting referencing and deep knowledge exploration are extremely worrying. There's also a legal shift going on. Because the Web is ephemeral, search results, even of scientific papers, have never been a solid basis of evidence, (despite the rubbish we still teach graduates in Research Methods classes). "AI" marks a shift similar to that between journalistic reporting of facts versus an opinion column. Whereas before Google might claim no responsibility for information it links to, that is most definitely not true of parochial and biased "AI" summaries which are "authored" by the "AI" search provider. The librarian has no stories of her own to tell. She is an accountable guide. The Oracle is a story-teller, and is very much a part of the story. Keep this in mind as you type requests for information into "AI" tools that look like familiar "search engines"."