[SIGCIS-Members] Perplexity
Danny Spitzberg
stationaery at gmail.com
Mon May 26 12:25:12 PDT 2025
Related to what Dag quoted about books... this just out
<https://archive.ph/JtpKt> from the Wall Street Journal
They Were Every Student’s Worst Nightmare. Now Blue Books Are Back.
Cheating with ChatGPT has become a huge problem for colleges. The solution
is painfully old-school.
By
Ben Cohen
May 23, 2025 8:00 pm ET
On Sat, May 24, 2025 at 10:11 AM Dag Spicer via Members <
members at lists.sigcis.org> wrote:
> Some thoughts on The Book from the wonderful Carl Sagan seem apposite:
> “What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree
> with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles.
> But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe
> somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is
> speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is
> perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never
> knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of
> time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."
> Dag
> -----
> Dag Spicer
> Senior Curator
> Computer History Museum
> Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
> ACM History Committee
> 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
> Mountain View CA 94043
>
> “History is a vast early warning system.”
> — Norman Cousins, American journalist (1915-1990).
>
> Join our Mailing List here: https://info.computerhistory.org/subscribe
>
>
>
> On May 24, 2025, at 2:01 AM, Willard McCarty via Members <
> members at lists.sigcis.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> An intrusion from an outsider who subscribes...
>
> This morning on BBC Radio 4 someone at the Hay-on-Wye Festival
> (celebrating books) got to talking about the pleasure of reading
> physical codices. That led me to thinking about the inevitable loss of
> data (if you will) when a book, any book, is digitised. I couldn't do
> the interdisciplinary work I do without access to a large number of
> digitised texts. Indeed I am exceedingly grateful for digital
> collections and build my own with the help of a good scanner + OCR. But
> then there's the sustained reading of those I regard as important to
> spend time with.
>
> However such an argument runs, the fact is that digitisation is a
> particularly lossy form of translation. More than that, it not so much
> makes the scholar's life easier as quite different. I worry about the
> 'easier' bit because it entails loss that one quickly stops thinking
> about--hence the tendency to miss what only hard work will find. Given
> the competitiveness of the academic life esp. for junior scholars--I'd
> guess that in this crowd I don't have to spell it out.
>
> On the tangible/digital, not either/or but both!
>
> All best,
> Willard McCarty
>
> On 23/05/2025 22:39, James Cortada via Members wrote:
>
> To your second point, what if the old Irish newspapers were no longer
> around to check? We have 90 years of experience of librarians filming
> and digitizing newspapers, magazines, etc then throwing away the
> originals, at least in the USA. That was especially so with American
> librarians with newspapers beginning in the 1930s when they microfilmed
> them. Hate to criticize them, but they sometimes did not film all the
> issues of a newspaper, sometimes missed pages, or they came out blurry.
> Fast forward to the future if AI invents citations to stuff that no
> longer exists in their original. I encountered a bit of that similar
> result with the Google book project a few years ago. I worry about this
> possibility. How do we address that problem?
>
> Meanwhile, I, an old guy who grew up pre-AI, will still look at hard
> copies or trusted online versions of something (e.g., a journal) and
> keep hard copies of anything I cite off the Internet (e.g., images)
> before dropping that info into an endnote, because I don't want to be
> accused of faking stuff. It's hard enough working with real facts and
> sources. I suggest others follow a similar path. Call me old
> fashioned, but it has not hurt my productivity so far. Thanks for
> posting your thoughts, Brian. Jim Cortada
>
> On Fri, May 23, 2025 at 4:22 PM Brian Randell via Members
> <members at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members at lists.sigcis.org>> wrote:
>
> Hi:____
>
> __ __
>
> My colleague Brian Coghlan added two further points about the
> dangers AI hallucinations/fabrications pose to historians who are
> trying to use Generative AI tools to help their investigations:____
>
> __ __
>
> First, our own investigation very strongly implied the "AI error
> rate" was inversely proportional to the AI ____
>
> knowledge of the query topic. So one *very easy* countermeasure
> would be for AI tools to calculate their ____
>
> knowledge of the topic and inversely adapt their response to that
> (be more cautious, not provide citations, ____
>
> warn users their knowledge is weak, etc). *THAT* would make me
> somewhat hopeful ...
>
> Secondly, "but then I found" fake citations -- these are a *REALLY*
> serious issue, especially to very old ____
>
> sources, e.g. the 100+ years old Irish Times citations I'd to check
> -- it took a full 2 days of my time plus an ____
>
> archivist to check them, and he spent the previous day physically
> retrieving the papers from a remote ____
>
> archive (and presumably another day returning them) -- I got this
> effort gratis because of the novelty of ____
>
> our investigation at that time, but it'd be unlikely to be repeated
> now without funding to pay for staff effort.____
>
> Imagine some years from now when huge numbers of these fake
> citations have to be checked, simply____
>
> because one might be a previously unknown real citation. Who on
> earth is going to fund that? ____
>
> __ __
>
> Cheers____
>
> __ __
>
> Brian Randell____
>
> __ __
>
> -- ____
>
> __ __
>
> School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square,
> Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG____
>
> EMAIL = Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk <mailto:Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk>
> PHONE = +44 (0)786 7805578____
>
> URL =
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncl.ac.uk%2Fcomputing%2Fstaff%2Fprofile%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546393139%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=oNnyTHMuMgMucXs1HQaF7fFQ2aPrePKtCUKz%2FgOWL3I%3D&reserved=0
> brianrandell.html <
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncl.ac.uk%2Fcomputing%2Fstaff%2Fprofile%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546414984%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=fIctrwGi4ixQuD4q3NTvxNmvkkTHWp7QVNz%2FUgsYM7w%3D&reserved=0
> brianrandell.html>____
>
> __ __
>
> __ __
>
> __ __
>
> *From: *Brian Randell <brian.randell at newcastle.ac.uk
> <mailto:brian.randell at newcastle.ac.uk>>
> *Date: *Wednesday, 7 May 2025 at 14:52
> *To: *Adam Hyland <achyland at uw.edu <mailto:achyland at uw.edu>>
> *Cc: *Sigcis <members at sigcis.org <mailto:members at sigcis.org>>
> *Subject: *Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Perplexity____
>
> Hi Adam:____
>
> ____
>
> Thanks – I hadn’t realised that URL links to Perplexity’s answers
> aren’t transferable.____
>
> ____
>
> It is certainly the case that Perplexity (which is based on ChatGPT4
> I believe) is much more “knowledgeable” about Percy Ludgate than
> ChatGPT was – not least because it has ingested subsequent additions
> to the Internet. ____
>
> ____
>
> Indeed, given the huge amount of effort and money being poured into
> LLM research we surely should expect the latest models to be
> significantly improved. ____
>
> ____
>
> And Perplexity’s answer to my question “Are the references that
> Perplexity provides always real ones” was very reasonable, one might
> even say “thoughtful”, though its cautionary comments have of course
> to be applied to this answer itself – a nice example of recursion. ____
>
> ____
>
> However, the NY Times had a very interesting, and surely worrying
> (for the Artificial Intelligentsia, especially) piece yesterday
> entitled: “A.I. Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are
> Getting Worse: A new wave of “reasoning” systems from companies like
> OpenAI is producing incorrect information more often. Even the
> companies don’t know why.”____
>
> ____
>
> I hope this link to it will work: ____
>
>
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F05%2F05%2Ftechnology%2Fai-hallucinations-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546436545%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=gEVbAtuBLymTKWaFwz9h%2Be6vYbq5q2UNlVdPUpDvRE0%3D&reserved=0
> chatgpt-google.html?
> unlocked_article_code=1.E08.mKzL.qenddVF5UQVq&smid=url-share
> <
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F05%2F05%2Ftechnology%2Fai-hallucinations-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546455331%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=vRVlqD9IhBHHxMDZHD6gukKl2tzL%2B7HvgQ1MdNMoV7U%3D&reserved=0
> chatgpt-google.html?
> unlocked_article_code=1.E08.mKzL.qenddVF5UQVq&smid=url-share>____
>
> ____
>
> And on the subject of “hallucinations” (or rather “fabrications”), I
> also strongly recommend Gary Marcus’s very recent piece:____
>
> ____
>
> Why DO large language models hallucinate? <https://
> garymarcus.substack.com/p/why-do-large-language-models-hallucinate>
> ____
>
> (
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgarymarcus.substack.com%2Fp%2Fwhy-do-large-language-models-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546472543%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xPJ2YSxEUEEBw9YRCf7qod1tjpyjd52GxXOWNmzKYdU%3D&reserved=0
> hallucinate <
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgarymarcus.substack.com%2Fp%2Fwhy-do-large-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546489849%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cyClLhEZ5tXUcNiWnOY0%2BTZUQI2OvxYAFj24rnGi3hY%3D&reserved=0
> language-models-hallucinate>)____
>
> ____
>
> Let me end by quoting from it:____
>
> ____
>
> “Because LLMS statistically mimic the language people have used,
> they often /fool people /into thinking that they operate like
> people. But they don’t operate like people. They don’t, for example,
> ever /fact check/ (as humans sometimes, when well motivated, do).
> They /mimic the kinds of things of people say in various contexts/.
> And that’s essentially all they do. . .____
>
> Of course the systems are probabilistic; not every LLM will produce
> a hallucination every time. But the problem is not going away;
> OpenAI’s recent o3 actually hallucinates<https://
>
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theleftshift.com%2Fopenai-admits-newer-models-hallucinate-even-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546506529%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xw5N%2Fc6tdtVnuVi4D03pyaPlcthOWxyKWT02P5Ofjss%3D&reserved=0
> more/>/more <
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theleftshift.com%2Fopenai-admits-newer-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546521577%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=bQjrSC%2B7xv8IYTFYlHcrdXFCDt8h9eZuoVhYJ6GqH1U%3D&reserved=0
> models-hallucinate-even-more/>/than some its predecesssors <https://
>
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theleftshift.com%2Fopenai-admits-newer-models-hallucinate-even-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546534705%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ZLpsZutayii5WFyyxofOWiVMASWx1O0nu4picq8gVdc%3D&reserved=0
> more/>. ____
>
> The chronic problem with creating fake citations in research papers
> <
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Flarsdaniel%2F2025%2F01%2F29%2Fthe-irony-ai-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546547635%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=HD1jw8wsOJghYC6LIxA6MpL%2FI7YU9HEy69mugPUys8o%3D&reserved=0
> experts-testimony--collapses-over-fake-ai-citations/> and faked
> cases in legal briefs <
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2Flindell-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546560792%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=gyX8uT%2Fug31s5K8zkvG1VujsP%2FX8ZOnsa%2Fdz85tECU0%3D&reserved=0
> dominion-2671843170/> is a manifestation of the same problem; LLMs
> correctly “model” the structure of academic references, but often
> make up titles, page numbers, journals and so on — once again
> failing to sanity check their outputs against information (in this
> case lists of references) that are readily found on the internet. So
> to is therampant problem with numerical errors in financial reports
> <
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vals.ai%2Fbenchmarks%2Ffinance_agent-04-22-2025&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546576681%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Jy66QrskB3aPCoO3ayT%2FICWZ4FlbqZq5M6SlRgAbyZM%3D&reserved=0
> >,
> documented in a recent benchmark.____
>
> Just how bad is it? One recent study showed rates of hallucinations
> of between 15% and 60%<
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fresearch.aimultiple.com%2Fai-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546590578%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=seRW1vLe2NuBP15YS%2F%2FmAtHGOCE%2B5838OzedZyVUnN0%3D&reserved=0
> hallucination/>across various models on a benchmark of 60 questions
> that were /easily verifiable relative to easily found CNN source
> articles that were directly supplied in the exam/. Even the best
> performance (15% hallucination rate) is, relative to an open-book
> exam with sources supplied, pathetic. That same study reports that,
> “According to Deloitte, 77% of businesses who joined the study are
> concerned about AI hallucinations”.____
>
> If I can be blunt, it is an absolute embarrassment that a technology
> that has collectively cost about half a trillion dollars can’t do
> something as basic as (reliably) check its output against wikipedia
> or a CNN article that is handed on a silver plattter. But LLMs still
> cannot - and on their own may never be able to — reliably do even
> things that basic.”____
>
> Cheers____
>
> ____
>
> Brian____
>
> ____
>
> -- ____
>
> ____
>
> School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square,
> Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG____
>
> EMAIL = Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk <mailto:Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk>
> PHONE = +44 (0)786 7805578____
>
> URL =
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncl.ac.uk%2Fcomputing%2Fstaff%2Fprofile%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546603193%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xVmA%2FdBbDaP81326OABeW%2FbePJz4Z8aihr%2F3dSqt7zE%3D&reserved=0
> brianrandell.html <
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncl.ac.uk%2Fcomputing%2Fstaff%2Fprofile%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546615899%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=QnN96y8EPhon8PY3WVdoggoWF0o3j23NTDpPYSGZlBk%3D&reserved=0
> brianrandell.html>____
>
> ____
>
> ____
>
> ____
>
> *From: *Adam Hyland <achyland at uw.edu <mailto:achyland at uw.edu>>
> *Date: *Tuesday, 6 May 2025 at 23:15
> *To: *Brian Randell <brian.randell at newcastle.ac.uk
> <mailto:brian.randell at newcastle.ac.uk>>
> *Cc: *Sigcis <members at sigcis.org <mailto:members at sigcis.org>>
> *Subject: *Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Perplexity____
>
> ⚠External sender. Take care when opening links or attachments. Do
> not provide your login details. ____
>
> Thanks for your return to this topic. The perplexity thread you
> shared is private and unfortunately the pdf generated obscures the
> answer with a UI element. I’ve asked the same question to Perplexity
> using their “research” mode which more profligately uses computing
> resources to give a more detailed answer. The result is here (____
>
>
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.perplexity.ai%2Fsearch%2Fdid-percy-ludgate-s-work-have-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546629150%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=8QIVbhLoazvcEGTCFS3nRUmDn2neKBJFd7nq8EkVJ1o%3D&reserved=0
> oxneW37nS9.bAiYvfV3QVw <
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.perplexity.ai%2Fsearch%2Fdid-percy-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546642455%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=0yHeqZbyjt5RHEE6eq%2FZoJ0J1UcyJfR9tBSJQSSQ4sA%3D&reserved=0
> ludgate-s-work-have-oxneW37nS9.bAiYvfV3QVw>) and should be available
> to anyone with the URL.____
>
> ____
>
> I’m familiar with perplexity because the University of Washington
> pays for “pro” access which makes it both partially difficult and
> morally dubious to proscribe its use in the classroom.____
>
> ____
>
> One broad point is probably obvious to everyone but bears repeating:
> there is much more difference in capability between any of these
> agents today versus a year ago than there is among the agents
> themselves. They all show a dramatic increase in capability to
> “understand” queries and generate cogent responses. If someone on
> this thread last posed one of their exam questions to ChatGPT last
> year they ought to try again today, and again in another month.____
>
> ____
>
> -Adam____
>
>
> ____
>
> Adam Hyland (/he/him)/ ____
>
> adampunk.com <
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fadampunk.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546655285%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Ow8%2FV0Y7rWMGRQhane6Pp%2FcE9Oxg55j0zNPTYgT8bBg%3D&reserved=0
> >____
>
> UW HCDE PhD Student____
>
> ____
>
> ____
>
> On Tue, May 6, 2025 at 8:57 AM Brian Randell via Members
> <members at lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members at lists.sigcis.org>> wrote:____
>
> Hi:____
>
> ____
>
> A while ago I and colleagues published a short critique in the
> Annals of the History of Computing of ChatGPT, based on its
> performance on some questions about Percy Ludgate.____
>
> ____
>
> I’ve recently been trying (the free version of) Perplexity, the
> AI search (or more exactly question-answering) system.____
>
> ____
>
> Perplexity itself claims:____
>
> ____
>
> Here's what makes Perplexity different____
>
> ____
>
> Answers that are accurate and always cited____
>
> We continuously search the internet and identify the best
> sources, from academic research ____
>
> to Reddit threads, to provide the perfect answer to any
> question.____
>
> ____
>
> Citations in every response____
>
> Every answer uses cited sources to provide a more accurate and
> comprehensive answer. ____
>
> If you want to dig deeper, just click the link to the source.____
>
> ____
>
> See its brilliant answer to the question “Did Percy Ludgate's
> work have any impact?”:____
>
> ____
>
>
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.perplexity.ai%2Fsearch%2Fdid-percy-ludgate-s-work-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546668082%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dzyBnIvPfmq65vIvQjJPwvPZHANmdBEFbwA%2FIIPaVdw%3D&reserved=0
> have-2esemV.BRuCo0Q7O_4AxfA <
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> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.perplexity.ai%2Fsearch%2Fdid-percy-ludgate-s-work-&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546694395%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=nItNM3SOH4x4wTqFMVD56VVdYHMtgQiK8RCJ8GBL3i8%3D&reserved=0
> have-2esemV.BRuCo0Q7O_4AxfA__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!gyxp0x4-
>
> UgdlqkBkNCRifXnXGAv6Y1rWzqMDvgDAx9lcE0e3xttiUQD_Zgg0jayzgaPV_LCgiwp1l7QbFBQe$>____
>
> ____
>
> The web version limits the number of questions per day – so far
> the iPhone App hasn’t.____
>
> ____
>
> I assume I’m not alone here in trying Perplexity, but I don’t
> recall any previous comment about it in SIGCIS.____
>
> ____
>
> However, the Wikipedia article about it ____
>
>
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FPerplexity_AI&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546706849%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ttz0ePB2g%2BxEWWIKeQcWtVWDB1FkyzqTPxuJo%2BQuZPE%3D&reserved=0
> <https://
>
> urldefense.com/v3/__https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cdspicer%40computerhistory.org%7C38f01d8a834a4bf76b2608dd9aa1b495%7Cb6a9c12a29ee4c5f8f93f0d7a8e2db2f%7C0%7C0%7C638836741546719376%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=0PAz3wNJkFpfXf%2BrFq5X2ndkK9Ag1geNAVatxGlAwgc%3D&reserved=0
> Perplexity_AI__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!gyxp0x4-
>
> UgdlqkBkNCRifXnXGAv6Y1rWzqMDvgDAx9lcE0e3xttiUQD_Zgg0jayzgaPV_LCgiwp1l_ByERqJ$>____
>
> is a little sobering, regarding its alleged copyright
> violations, and failure to respect the robots.txt web-crawling
> standards.____
>
> ____
>
> Cheers____
>
> ____
>
> Brian____
>
> _______________________________________________
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> ____
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> James W. Cortada
> Senior Research Fellow
> Charles Babbage Institute
> University of Minnesota
> jcortada at umn.edu <mailto:jcortada at umn.edu>
> 608-274-6382
>
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion
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> --
> Willard McCarty,
> Professor emeritus, King's College London;
> Editor, Humanist
>
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