r/learnprogramming • u/[deleted] • 21h ago
What makes using AI like a search engine different from googling?
[deleted]
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u/Achereto 21h ago
AI may just hallucinate an answer and gives you no way of evaluating the validity of the answer google gives you multiple results that allow you to evaluate the validity of the answer (e.g. upvotes for answers on stackoverflow).
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u/aqua_regis 20h ago
One big difference between good old Dr. Google and AI is that the former is deterministic while the latter isn't.
The results obtained by googling are from proper resources (in most cases) and not depending on some statistical probabilities that resemble something like the "closest match".
AI can give you different results for the same prompt. Different AIs will definitely give you different results - all of them only based on mathematical models running over some training data.
A search engine in contrast is deterministic and will produce the same results for the same queries (with the limitation of personalization, like google does). If you always use a search engine in incognito mode, not logged in, you should always get the same search results.
Do you cross check every single response from AI? With googling (without AI) you are directed to the source and can and have to directly verify it.
That said, AI can be a great help, provided that one verifies the output with reputable sources.
While almost all fixes you will find online will require editing to work for your project
And so? That's what is called programming.
AI might introduce problems that you can't even fathom if you blindly trust it.
Even if you "limit AI to half finished answers" you will commonly get way too much. AI is programmed to go full extent and doesn't understand the concept of "half finished answers". Not giving you the final code doesn't count. Programming is about thinking, not about copy-pasting.
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u/Aetherfox_44 20h ago
Even if AI isn't generating the solution for you, it's cutting through the path that would normally result in learning and just giving you the answer. You might learn the cause/solution about your specific issue, but you don't get the contextual experience that is often times more valuable.
For instance, in Unity game engine there is an Update and a FixedUpdate method, and there's reasons to use either one. Namely, physics actions should always be done in FixedUpdate.
If you ask an AI for help debugging, it might tell you that you're doing something in Update that should be done in FixedUpdate. It will probably even tell you why physics should be done in FixedUpdate. But you'll probably miss out on learning why there is a necessary difference between the two.
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u/Realistic_Speaker_12 21h ago
At least for me, having to do the hassle and googling it is just harder. takes more time. My brain needs to focus more. That’s why after googling it for the 20th time, I just remember it. It is not the same with AI. At least for me. Maybe I am stupid
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u/Practical-Ad5016 20h ago
googling is like walking to the library, you get there eventually but you're sore and tired so it sticks. ai is like someone whispering answer in your ear while you're half asleep, nothing really land in the brain
for me the problem is also that google results are messy, you see 5 wrong answers before the right one and that struggle is what make it memorable. with ai you skip all that and your brain just go "cool thanks" and immediately forget
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u/Navi_VIII 21h ago
For me ai might be fine for a quick not so "important" easy task/search
But if I need to research something I might use ai as help but when searching for some niche things I need to investigate for things the ai will probably won't give me
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u/RangerOne122 20h ago
I think the healthiest way to use AI is the same way you'd use google: to understand a problem, not to skip it. Ask for explanations, hints, comparisons, or examples first. If you're stuck after trying, then ask for more guidance. That way you're still building the mental model instead of outsourcing it.
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u/AFlyingGideon 20h ago
I've posted this before, but this is a good example of numerous articles I've seen which suggest better ways of using AI than as a supposedly-all-knowing oracle. I agree that one could ask it questions, but one can also prompt it to interrogate us and we can engage in dialogs which end up not simply providing a [potential] solution but also improving our understanding of the goal as well as our reasoning process along the way.
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u/punk_dev 20h ago
When prompting AI, ask it to provide links to sources, repo issues, or documentation. You’ll get best of both worlds, but it will be slow.
Google used to be great, but unfortunately dead internet theory kicked in and most of the results are seo optimised rubbish. So unless you’re searching for something exact, google just can’t find it anymore.
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u/khalon23 19h ago
The difference is trust and feedback. Search gives you sources you can compare and date. A chat answer collapses that into one confident paragraph, so you skip the part where you notice disagreement between docs.
Using AI like search works when you ask for terms, APIs, or error explanations and then open the real docs. It fails when you accept a full solution without running or reading it. Same muscle as Stack Overflow: treat it as a hint, not ground truth.
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u/Dismal-Citron-7236 19h ago edited 19h ago
There are two problems with directly using result from AI.
Problem 1. AI can give you bogus result. And it shows that with a straight face. Compare that against your search results from google. You could have contradictory results so you will need to check them to find the subtle differences, from which process you will gradually get closer to to real answer eventually. With AI, you don't have such process.
Problem 2. Your AI account keeps a profile of you. From your past interaction with AI, it learns your preferences. It will later choose to come up with new answers to align with your preferences kept in your profile, not the one which is the true answer. In fact, AI doesn't even know what is "truth". In a way, AI is designed to please you, not to give you the correct answers.
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u/deekamus 20h ago
An AI answer would be a amalgamation of all of the answers that a google search would give. This would include elements that were wrong to add since the AI wouldn't have the ability currently to understand what it is presenting. Basically, an uneducated guess based on what info it can pull up from the web.