Trust Gap, Search Expansion, Local Signals, Apple's AI Comeback

Google's Secret Weapon vs. AI: Trust

If asked whether AI results are trustworthy, a majority of users will say "yes." The percentages vary depending on how the question is framed. But if they're prompted to consider issues like hallucination, accuracy, bias, plagiarism, privacy, and so on, they'll express concerns and trust goes down. I've had plenty of personal experience with ChatGPT hallucinating lately and it's becoming a major issue. A recent Yext survey of 2,200 people in the US and Europe found that "48% [of AI users] cross-check answers across platforms, highlighting the need for consistent brand information everywhere." It's not entirely clear what "platforms" means here, but probably a range of other sites. In other words, they're using a secondary site to validate the AI result. This type of behavior is not new. It has existed in travel. (e.g., checking multiple sites for pricing) and local (checking reviews on other sites as an anti-fraud strategy). But, if true, it represents a significant problem for AI. It could mean that trust in AI is eroding. And having to conduct a redundant lookup as a matter of routine reduces the efficiency of using ChatGPT. The whole game is trust. And even though Google has thoroughly "enshittified" its user experience, people still do trust Google.