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Comment by ramshanker | Hacker News Reader

Just today, I was having difficulty with printing in AutoDesk software. Copilot(Previw) was right there at the bottom, I opened it and asked for steps to solve the issue. It told, in steps, exactly what to do, which worked as instructed. Solving my issue. The original article from AutoDesk was also linked. My immediate thinking was search is doomed.

Compare this to what I would have to do with google. Open browser, type the query, guess which of the top 10 results are likely to answer the issue I was having. Click few link to open them in new tab. Read though it to see if the correct problem was being discussed. If not see another link in the top 10 list. Repeat.

I even thought where in that interface, Microsoft could place the future ads. It's totally in the realm.

EDIT: At this point, ChatGPT is basically old school "I am feeling lucky" on steroids.

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> Compare this to what I would have to do with google. Open browser, type the query, guess which of the top 10 results are likely to answer the issue I was having. Click few link to open them in new tab. Read though it to see if the correct problem was being discussed. If not see another link in the top 10 list. Repeat.

This is outdated. I repeated your experiment with Google query [how do I print from Autodesk] and the top result is the step by step instructions (not a link but the actual instructions, with a link to the source following). The second result is a link to Autodesk's own help docs for the print function. No ads above the fold.

But you make a point that people will keep assuming what they want to anticipate how the search will unfold, and I admit this is in part due to the enshittified commercial and news-related (and other) results, the bias is coming from somewhere, right? But I would encourage anyone to at least verify this assumption before posting it as fact.

Well, that was me trying to simplify the query for HN audiences. Let me recall the actual conversation.

Me: How to add missing monochrome.ctb file in autodesk dwg trueview?

[Upto this part google is same. Pointing to the same link, but not showing any steps though.]

Copilot: Here are the steps. Put them here in this folder......

Me: I put it there as suggested. Still didn't work. How to make tureview refer another folder location?

Copilot: Here are the steps.

Me: It worked thank you. [I really thanked it ;)]

I do it the whole time with bing Copilot. Didn't visit Google to search for my daily questions like for several months. It feels so outdated to search for a proper result in old goog.

So actually, what Copilot does is to prefilter and condense results. If I like it and it seems legit, it's enough to get my answers. Sometimes I take up the source. Most of the times I reprompt Copilot to list me alternatives and find errors in them. That discloses erroneous things like contradictions enough.

But what's more useful is "how can I mix up two dictionaries with different keys one by one into a set."... 20 seconds later, I can read how and don't have to search SO for whole 20 minutes of reading.

But yes, it will impose the same changes as Google did. Before Google, you should know where you get the information needed or already have it in your hrad/learned. After Google, you don't have to. So everyone changed into stupid mode but being way more productive. So, I fear, that's the next wave of stupid:)

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