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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: February 14th, 2024

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  • There are various levels of AI here

    Storing embeddings/vectors in a search index can make your searches smarter and more relevant. The embeddings squeeze related concepts closer together than pure keyword approaches, which if done well increases retrieval quality.

    RAG tools and AI searches are just a layer on top of your index. When done well these can be really useful in annotating your results and speeding up finding things.

    That’s useful when you’re searching say an error message and the AI is able to iterate on keywords and skim a Guthub issue about it and skip to the resolution.

    Similarly it’s good when you’re researching something but don’t have the exact words, AI search can iterate and capture your intent, then run several queries based on that.

    I don’t find the hallucination problem significant in practice with a lot of AI search tools, but I have found AI is vulnerable to certain types of SEO spam that a human would never fall for.

    As an example most companies have a “comparison to” or “alternatives to” blogpost. The AI does not critically look at the fact that a service is hosting a blogpost shilling their own product. So asking search AI for options is actually poor quality because it will return the shilled results that appear in search first.

    AI also search adds an additional silent layer of filtering, which you need to be conscious of.





  • A recession is generally defined as two or more quarters with negative GDP growth.

    Tariffs will absolutely cause that. They’re going to dampen US growth for years.

    That’s only one simple definition though. Broadly I think the answer is still yes, this will cause US job losses, as you’re already seeing in the automotive industry. Job losses result in lower consumer spending, resulting in lower business revenue, and less business expansion and cost cutting, and it can become a reinforcing cycle.

    Recessions can be mild or severe, so the jury is still out on whether the US will hold their tariffs, and how quickly the system adapts to the changes.