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    Add "fucking" to your Google searches to neutralize AI summaries

    (gizmodo.com)
    788 points jsheard | 11 comments | 31 Jan 25 21:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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    braza ◴[31 Jan 25 21:52 UTC] No.42892606[source]▶
    I work with ML and I am bullish with AI in general; said that, I would pay between 5 to 10 USD a feature or toggle called “No AI” for several services.

    For myself I noticed 2 bad effects in my daily usage:

    - Search: impossible to reach any original content in the first positions. Almost everything sounds like AIsh. The punctuation, the commas, the semicolon, the narro vocabulary, and the derivative nature of the recent internet pages.

    - Discovery: (looking directly to you Spotify and Instagram) here I would add in the “No AI” feature another one “Forget the past…” and then set the time. I personally like to listen some orthogonal genres seasonally. But once that you listen 2 songs in a very spontaneous manner Spotify will recommend that for a long time. I listened out of curiosity some math rock, and the “Discovery Weekly” took 9 weeks to not recommend that anymore.

    replies(10): >>42892701 #>>42892972 #>>42893138 #>>42893300 #>>42893433 #>>42893512 #>>42894177 #>>42894208 #>>42895019 #>>42896514 #
    1. bluetidepro ◴[31 Jan 25 22:01 UTC] No.42892701[source]▶
    For search, use Kagi. You don’t have to use their AI products at all to just use search.
    replies(3): >>42892853 #>>42893051 #>>42893207 #
    2. frakt0x90 ◴[31 Jan 25 22:12 UTC] No.42892853[source]▶
    Strongly agree. Whenever I search something and am met with a sea of

    TOP 10 X; THE 20 BEST Y; 20 REASONS Z; etc.

    I go Kagi and am immediately refreshed.

    replies(1): >>42893005 #
    3. TimTheTinker ◴[31 Jan 25 22:24 UTC] No.42893005[source]▶
    And yet Kagi isn't anywhere near as good as Google was ~13 years ago.

    Yes - a big part of that is that online content is so much worse than it used to be. But it became bad over time because of what Google incentivized.

    replies(1): >>42893405 #
    4. pjc50 ◴[31 Jan 25 22:28 UTC] No.42893051[source]▶
    Left field tip if you think a search engine is hiding stuff: Yandex. They're not actually Russian any more, but they're far enough down the list of search engines that nobody bothers to DMCA them.
    replies(2): >>42893641 #>>42893875 #
    5. segasaturn ◴[31 Jan 25 22:44 UTC] No.42893207[source]▶
    If Kagi made a cheaper "no AI" tier I would be happy to subscribe. AI is costly to run, so even if you don't use the AI it's priced into your subscription fee - you're paying for an expensive product you don't want or use.

    e: according to Kagi's pricing page they do have a 'no AI' tier, but it limits your number of searches to 300/month. Seems like a totally arbitrary limitation, but its still better than forced AI.

    replies(2): >>42893409 #>>42920376 #
    6. acaloiar ◴[31 Jan 25 23:01 UTC] No.42893405{3}[source]▶
    Google ~13 years ago dealt with a much less complicated search landscape where

    1. Its own products weren't (as much) part of the search result quality problem. Today Google has hungry product managers from Ads, Youtube, and various AI products convincing higher-ups that their product deserves higher placement. That placement used to be sacrosanct.

    2. The daily volume of AI-generated garbage content 13 years ago was probably a rounding error in today's volume

    So Google was operating in a different landscape than Kagi of today. They had to do a lot less to achieve the quality they had.

    I disagree that that Kagi "isn't anywhere near as good as Google was ~13 years ago". It's near. For me personally, it's better because I'm never served first-party ads.

    7. stevage ◴[31 Jan 25 23:01 UTC] No.42893409[source]▶
    Yeah I'm on the 300 per month tier. I tend to hit that limit after about 3 weeks, which is certainly annoying.
    replies(1): >>42893471 #
    8. grahamj ◴[31 Jan 25 23:07 UTC] No.42893471{3}[source]▶
    yeah I hit it in about two. I just signed up monthly to try it out for a bit but am wavering on whether I consider it worth it. It's good but I'm not sure it's enough better than DDG to pay for.

    And for AI I'd usually rather have API access and use it with tools rather than a web chat.

    replies(1): >>42908761 #
    9. labster ◴[31 Jan 25 23:24 UTC] No.42893641[source]▶
    They are in fact Russian any more, the Dutch company that owned Yandex sold to Russian investors last July.
    10. ponector ◴[31 Jan 25 23:47 UTC] No.42893875[source]▶
    Maybe you have a Chinese search engine to suggest? North Korean should be even better
    11. VertanaNinjai ◴[03 Feb 25 17:08 UTC] No.42920376[source]▶
    I understand your point in general, but I don’t think it applies to Kagi. Users were paying the same monthly fee and then the company added those features on with no extra subscription cost. I also like that it doesn’t clutter my search. It doesn’t appear unless I press the AI button or end my search with a question mark (can also be disabled).

    The only extra costs are if you use the (opt-in optional) AI Assistant which is a web UI to access various models for chatting purposes. As an aside, they recently updated this UI so it’s actually usable as a ChatGPT or Claude alternative.