I saw this on reddit, thinking it’s a joke, but it’s not. GPT 5 mini (and maybe sometimes 5) gives this answer. You can check it yourself, or see somebody else’s similar conversation here: https://chatgpt.com/share/689a4f6f-18a4-8013-bc2e-84d11c763a99
OK but that’s not a question anyone ever would or should ask AI. If you don’t know the difference between web search and text transformers then you’re playing with tools you don’t understand well enough to use effectively
Kitchen knife is used for slicing a chicken, not self-protection when you’re in danger at your home.
No, seriously, there’s nothing wrong with using AI as a search engine, as long as you have websearch option enabled and check the sources.
Obviously tools can be used for unintended jobs - but the point is they’re not the optimal tool in the moment
Of course there’s “nothing wrong with it,” it’s just something I’d stop and explain to a kid or elderly relative why they’re not getting the best results
“Why are you using the shitty LLM in the way that it is promoted to be used?”
“Playing with tools you don’t understand” is the definition of most LLM products.
Well, then maybe they shouldn’t be selling this shit as a replacement for search engines, or making search engines worse to make us stop using them and use this shit instead, or shoving this shit on top of search engines to force us to use it even if we’re trying to use a search engine, should they‽ 😤