I will agree degredation happened, but Google was way more reliable before AI started "helping". Now it makes up its own write-up about whatever you search for and gives you little of actual useful info.

I think the closest thing we have to a “right tool” is your brain. If you’re looking for a product your first thought shouldn’t be “let me ask Chat GPT” it should be something like“let me ask someone who sells or is familiar with this product.”

Tools like search engines can be useful for finding the right people to talk to.

I think people like interacting with a computers instead of people because it’s “more convenient.” Many computer systems smooth over the friction that we experience in the real world.

One of the common topics for internet comics these days seems to be anxiety people have about making phone calls, and I think search engines and chat bots present a similar dynamic.

Yes, maybe people don’t experience as much anxiety when using a chatbot or interactive voice recording, but ultimately those tools won’t always work and people will eventually need to work through their anxiety to accomplish what they want which involves interacting with other humans (or choose not to engage with people and become bitter and isolated.)