The most important difference between chatGPT and traditional Google Search

ChatGPT will eat traditional search, for this one key reason.

Traditional search (aka Google) is like a genius handing you a stack of books.

ChatGPT (and other AI chat tools) are like a genius sitting down with you and having a never-ending Q&A with you.

For argument purposes, I’m going to call this difference, single-layer questions vs. multi-layer questions.

With traditional search you get one chance at a question, then all context is lost after that question. With ChatGPT, you get to keep digging and pushing with as many questions as you like, peeling back layers of different topics.

Single-layer Questions

There will always be a need to reply to questions that have just a single answer. Some examples include:

“What’s the score of the basketball game?”

“How far is it from LA to New York City?”

“What’s the weather right now?”

All of these questions have one simple answer and are fact. There is no need to do a follow-up question, as each question and answer stand on their own and are known facts. Google has very solved this for many questions with it’s “OneBox” where you don’t even need to click on a link, and it shows the answer immediately.

This is nice for quick information gathering but is not how we normally learn about most topics, especially as they become more complex.

Enter, Multi-layer questions.

Multi-layer Questions

Now, let’s consider slightly more complex topics, but not out of the norm of day-to-day questions. Examples of multi-level questions include:

“What do I need to do to prepare for climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro?”

“How do I delete backgrounds in Photoshop?”

“Is being a vegan healthy?”

If you Google these questions, you’ll get lots of answers. The problem is then you need to sift through these answers and try and find the ones that are most relevant to you. With AI Chat, you can ask these questions, get an initial answer, and then dig deeper!

Here are some “Question #2” examples from the above:

Kilimanjaro

“I’m in my late 20s and will be arriving in the Fall with three friends. I’ve also climbed a few 14er mountains before. What preparations should I do?”

Photoshop

“I tried deleting a background, but it wasn’t working. I’m still getting lots of remnants from the initial image. Help!”

Vegan

“I try and be active every day and eat whole foods and weigh 170lbs. How many grams of protein do I need and what is a good source?”

The posture moves from, give me the answer, to let’s have a dialogue.

What’s next?

Being able to answer multi-level questions is just the beginning. It won’t be long until these AI platforms can not only answer multi-level questions but also have a memory of all questions asked in the past, along with a detailed knowledge of you as a person.

Then it will truly be like talking to a super genius who has known you for years.

Feels scary and exciting all at the same time 😬 🤓 ✨

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