How an artificial intelligence (as in large language model based generative AI) could be better for information access and retrieval than an encyclopedia with a clean classification model and a search engine?
If we add a step of processing – where a genAI “digests” perfectly structured data and tries, as bad as it can, to regurgitate things it doesn’t understand – aren’t we just adding noise?
I’m talking about the specific use-case of “draw me a picture explaining how a pressure regulator works”, or “can you explain to me how to code a recursive pattern matching algorithm, please”.
I also understand how it can help people who do not want or cannot make the effort to learn an encyclopedia’s classification plan, or how a search engine’s syntax work.
But on a fundamental level, aren’t we just adding an incontrolable step of noise injection in a decent time-tested information flow?
AI today in LLMs are quite juvenile and quite bonkers in image generation. They will probably get better like all information technology do (anyone remember the mobile phone? It went from popular, bad and expensive to a 20€ perfectly working door-stop).
So to answer your question, imagine an AI functioning like a personal teacher, so that when you see that pressure regulator valve, you can ask for why it works, what happens if the gas is not isotropic? How’s the reaction to pressure changes? Where is it used? Show me a simulation of it in a real world situation. Calculate which one to get ad this specific replacement. Can you 3D print one? Why was it used on steam engines, or was it? Thousands of informations that won’t fit on one page, that can be explained to you at your level too, if the teacher is smart enough.
I mean, that could be quite neat IMO.