Is an AI chatbot, like ChatGPT, a search engine? Does it scour the internet for helpful information so that it can respond to user queries?

These questions were at the heart of a small kerfuffle on Bluesky last week between decorated speculative fiction writer Ann Leckie and a few prominent tech thinkers. Honestly, it bummed me out. But I found that the next morning, I had a lot to say about it. So I enlisted my dear husband, Sean, and I talked him through it.

This episode is different than the last 6 months or so of episodes. If you have the same taste in podcasts that I do, you'll recognize the format. I've been wanting to try it for a long time, and this was the perfect topic to give it a go. It's far more casual than the last 15+ episodes, but just as rigorous. If you like it, reach out on Bluesky, and let me know! Sean is already asking when we can do it again.

Footnotes:

Read the essay version of this episode.
Ann Leckie's original post
Casey Newton's post
Anil Dash's post (in response to someone agreeing with Leckie)
Courtney Milan's post about the "card catalog effect"
The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan with Quentin Fiore
"On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜" by Emily W. Bender and Timnit Gebru

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EP 495: Ann Leckie vs. The "Well, Actually" Bros