Search results are useless, AI is poisoning Wikipédia. While I do have the patience to read primary sources in my field of study, it becomes a nightmare to repeat this process for every bit of information I want.

I’m almost signing up for Encyclopedia Britannica. I don’t know what else to do.

    • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      the problem is finding those forum posts

      Google doesn’t return them anymore. I have much more luck with duckduckgo when I want to find an answer to a specific question

  • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
    16·
    2 months ago

    You don’t really.

    Skepticism is a practiced skill, rather than just “being skeptical”, you can learn how to assess credibility of a source, and develop a habit of doing so.

    I quite like skeptics guide to the universe podcast. Although I admit I usually skip chunks of each episode.

    Another avenue is researching about cognitive biases. We all do it.

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
    12·
    2 months ago

    Use the Google flag of “before:2022” added to any search. This will limit returned results to only those captured before 2022, which is when AI slop feedback started. Obviously this doesn’t work for current events, but if the data you’re looking for doesn’t need to be recent it can be useful.

    Example:

  • dparticiple@sh.itjust.works
    11·
    2 months ago

    Nothing is a panacea against slop, but for general search, I’ve become a huge fan of Kagi. Gave up Google years ago, went to DDG, but Kagi is a cut above. There is a subscription fee, however. (Not shilling - no association with them, just a happy user).

  • choui4@lemmy.zip
    4·
    2 months ago

    Similar to the top comment, I learned leftist political theory (mindset in their case). Once you understand what capitalism and socialism truly are, you have almost like a shield to protect you from certain propaganda. This sounds arrogant, but its genuinely been my experience

  • Vespair@lemmy.zipEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago

    The uncomfortable truth is that we lived through a very unique golden age of veracity. The photograph and later video completely revolutionized and changed the whole idea of what knowledge and verification were. Prior to indisputable photographic evidence, word and reputation carried more weight as often they were the strongest evidence towards the truth. AI has kind of us returned us to that stage, weirdly making the period of veracity we considered permanent instead a comparative blip in human history.

  • early_riser@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 months ago

    I don’t. I ignore the news to the best of my ability. I can’t be misinformed if I’m not informed in the first place.

  • Lemmy World@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 months ago

    I don’t know if it’s a location as much as a mindset for me.

    I look for fallacies and falsehoods and should they arise at rates that would be hard to chalk up as honest error, I stop trusting the source.

  • pir8t0x@lemmy.mlBanned
    2·
    2 months ago

    I’m a user of Brave Search and I get reliable information with every search. I wonder what kind of information you’re even looking for though. And Wikipedia is still pretty reliable for me… Maybe try Brave Search instead of Google?

    • gilokee@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      I didn’t even know Brave had a search engine, is it any good? I use duckduckgo and it’s okay.

      edit - you said it’s good. I wonder what others think/how it compares to DDG and the big evil one.

      • pir8t0x@lemmy.mlBanned
        2·
        2 months ago

        Personally, I have tried many search engines (Google, Startpage, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Bing, Mojeek, Presearch etc.). And so far, it’s the best one I have used. And on top of that, it’s not Big Tech and it literally has an independent index which means it doesn’t rely on Google or Bing for it results. So I personally highly suggest it. It also has an AI overview (powered by their own AI) like Google but pretty useful unlike Google. If you don’t like it, you can disable it though.

        And it also has its own AI called “Ask Brave”, which is totally up to your choices if you wanna use it or not. I’m just letting you know.