Stephen Downes

If I had to summarize this 4260 word blog post, I would summarize it like this: the problem with AI search is that it shortcuts a complex process with a simple (and not especially useful) substitute. For example, "there is this consistent focus on search being getting answers to questions... but more often than not, I am not looking for answers in my search." Same here. But more, AI search shortcuts the whole process of following links to their source and things like associative search ("far flung bits of information... I relate through my lived experiences). There's a deeper point here, too: there's a big difference between research as 'solving problems' and research as 'discovery'. The business and productivity mindset is firmly fixated on the former, which is why we get the AI search we do, but people like me (and, I guess, Alan Levine, though I hesitate to speak for him) are far more interested in the latter, because it takes us to places we haven't been to before (and which is why my Age of Discovery photo (pictured) hangs on my office wall).