I've noticed something different in the way my search returns on Google are displayed recently....
Nowadays, instead of getting a list of links I'm used to I get a paragraph of human-like prose giving me an answer.
As it says at the bottom of such returns (see below), that this is 'generative AI', and it's 'experimental'.
So here we have it, AI parsing and packaging my information.
Google AI tells us that such AI generated search returns will only be used for 'neutral' searches, while political queries will generate the old style list of links.
So now Google gets to decide what 'political' means.
But what counts as 'political'...?
One of the mantras of Green Politics is that 'the personal is the political', as in what you do at home, or in your family and friendship circles isn't just 'private', it has national and global implications.
So it's interesting to note that Google doesn't frame the debate around 'organic food' as a political issue, it's framed as a matter of personal choice....
If you type in the following query...
- 'Is organic food good'
You get a generative AI response, note framed in very personal terms...
Interestingly the list later on goes straight to lifestyle, recipe and cooking type returns....
If you type in this however....
- 'Is nuclear power good'
You get a list, NOT generative AI....
I mean, it's hard to argue that Nuclear Power isn't political, it takes nation states and massive corporations to work together over decades* to manage it.
*It should be centuries given the toxic legacy but that's unlikely given that the current system will probably collapse over that time frame.
Final thoughts...
Hardest evidence yet that tech companies are agenda setting, that is setting the discourse through which we discuss critical issues!
It's actually quite useful this.... I'd never considered analysing the list of search returns in how they are framed before. Google has obviously been subtly depoliticising several issues that I would regard as political for a couple of decades already, but without anyone realising.
Now it's just much more obvious, which could actually make people think more critically about the information they are getting.
Very final thoughts...
There is no way I'd publish this on my main blog, the one which relies on Google's search returns for my income, it's critical of Google, too much of a risk.
Interesting, huh?!?
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