Why Chatbots Are Bad

Researchers say natural-language processing by AI models will only contribute to more misinformation and polarization via MIT Technology Review:

The idea of using AI to synthesize and package up responses to search queries is part of a trend that began with the use of what are known as direct answers or snippets—single answers or short excerpts shown above links to documents in search results. In theory, these can give you the information you’re looking for at a glance, saving you the trouble of reading through longer documents to find it yourself…

There’s a dilemma here. Direct answers may be convenient, but they are also often incorrect, irrelevant, or offensive. They can hide the complexity of the real world, says Benno Stein at Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany.