alt Hacker NewsI spent the last three days (off and on) using Gemini to configure my edge router 4 with my iOS devices on a vpn and it's been awesome. In the past I'd do a google search and read a few sources of documentation, do another google search and read another set of documentation. Now, Gemini aggregates multiple pages together so all of the work of reading source docs from multiple locations is now n a single step.
Oh, I should mention though. There was no advertising at all. They didn't make any money off me. It was 100% Gemini which I recognize as not long-term feasible.
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Yes. When my kids wonder why I don't hate AI the way they do I tell them it's because I hate Google even more.
To be more precise, I hate the SEO shithole the internet has become, that Google serves up, that Google facilitated, indirectly created.
(I really don't have any tears to shed if there is a death of the Corporate Internet™.)
I've run into major problems with LLMs as I maintain my home Linux systems. If I just copied commands they list, I would have a near 100% failure rate, as most of the information they have has been gleaned from forum posts that are years out of date.
They're a good jumping off point, but I need to delve into the original sources just like I did when I used Google.
There will be new ways and incentives for content creators to be compensated. Many AI search startups are already talking about this or have created programs that help incentivize content creation.
its pretty good with logs too. i mostly paste a few pages i suspect hace a problem in them and let it go to town. its almost always correct and is way faster than me
Believe me they're making money off you one way or the other
And I've spent the last few days irritated that everything I ask Gemini is answered with something that's blatantly wrong and I'm not even a subject matter expert. A quick Google search for the same questions gives plenty of results that counter what the LLM gave me.
YMMV.
I've been mostly enjoying Gemini, but it also clearly and definitively told me something i was trying to do was not possible with the library im using, so i wrote a different implementation, an hour later to discover that the library does in fact do precisely what i wanted in exactly the way i wanted with less headache. If I'd just gone right to the documentation instead, it actually would have saved me time.
I built a simple Claude Code container on my homelab to do the same. I can just SSH in and get tech support when I need it.
no, no, no. you are supposed to romanticize the hunt for correct information /s
Are you sure the lack of advertising isn't long term feasible? It seems to me that AI models have proven themselves to be something consumers ARE willing to pay a subscription - or even pay per use/token for.
It took you 4 days because you used Gemini. Gemini is the worst AI model I ever used. It is way behind even open models. It looks like Google just reached its AOL moment.
All the information Gemini surfaced was created with human effort and published on the internet with the expectation that humans would visit the website and the creator would get some reward - advertising dollars, bragging rights, popularity, subscribers or whatever else.
If the only visitors to websites are now LLM training bots then what incentive is there to publish anything new? For how long can we continue to rely on pre-2024 non-AI generated content?