Awareness of limits and dangers
Adopting general-purpose search services based on generative AI

Generative AIs thus bring a new search experience, compared with conventional engines, but also present limitations and weaknesses.

• The random nature of results: the probabilistic nature of answer generation can lead to variations depending on previous searches and the user's profile. The same search performed by the same person, a few moments apart, may generate different results.

• Searching for specific documents or information: generative AIs produce general explanations or synthesize knowledge, but web search engines are superior when it comes to finding very precise information or specific documents.

• Reliability of information: generative AIs can produce coherent, convincing texts, but they are not immune to hallucinations, i.e. the creation of false but plausible information....