While I don’t use AI to write Techadjacent, I do use it for research at times and to check my work elsewhere. Often, this research/AI interrogation is to get a preliminary verification of something I feel to be true, or as an introduction to something I have no clue about. However, if I’m going to publish something as factual, I try to at least check the original sources. As far as AIs go, Perplexity is pretty good for this sort of research, as it lists where it got the information it give you by default.
This doesn’t make me (or Perplexity for that matter) perfect, but I suspect I’m better than average at getting my facts straight. Still, even in my case, this AI-centric research pattern seems problematic to me. But why? Keep reading.
Fewer website visits = fewer ad dollars = less useful information
Consider the web of a decade ago, or maybe even two. When you needed an obscure bit of information, you searched for it via Google, Yahoo, HotBot, AltaVista, et al…