Doing any type of research has been greatly transformed in our brave new world. Fact-finding used to take a researcher on multiple trips to a library- those quaint tree-based data repositories of books (the original tablets but with no charger required). For those too young to remember them, encyclopedias were specialized books that contained a wealth of useful data- sort of like an analog Google, but alphabetized and way heavier. And those flat papery things called newspapers were the original news feeds- but news feeds that involved no WiFi or likes- maybe just some ink on your fingers. Plus (though it’s hard for some to imagine), newspapers were knowledge sources that you couldn’t scroll through. Also they only s-l-o-w-l-y, boringly updated every 24 hours.
Today’s research usually involves online research- which can be risky, since misinformation (not only the evil deliberate kind) is definitely out there in internet land. You truly cannot believe everything you read- AI, search engines, and translators– or all three combined- can get data horribly wrong.
Lost in Translation: The Bot Version
AI (chatbots, helpers, content generators) can hallucinate facts and invent studies, because they are trained with huge data sets that do not necessarily distinguish good from bad. (AI is the student that didn’t read the book but still wrote a 1,000 word essay).
Search engines simply rank and amplify information, and reward popularity- not accuracy. The junk can rise above the genuine information, with algorithms personalizing my “truth” from your “truth” by the results they feed us. (And the nonsense with the most clicks wins!)
Translators (both human and AI) can turn accurate knowledge into gibberish, due to literal mistranslation of idioms, slang, context, humor, puns, or tone. AI famously mistranslated a French joke “Why do fish hate computers? Because they’re afraid of the net” into “Why do fish dislike computers? Because they fear the Internet”-technically correct but entirely missing the pun. Another classic meme example was “Knowledge is power” which reemerged from the computer mind as “Cheese is strength.” (In other words, machines can spit out words but don’t get the full meaning- only humans do that).
Chatbots Have Confidence (Just Not Always Facts)
A recently reported internet fiasco was the Chicago Sun-Times/The Philadelphia Inquirer article about their 2025 recommended summer reading list (“Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer”). Of the 15 book titles recommended, 10 were totally made up, down to the detailed plot descriptions. The authors were all real authors, but the books were apparently figments of fevered digital imaginations. The writer of the news article had used AI for his research, but had not double-checked its accuracy enough. The freelance writer who wrote the article was “completely embarrassed” and was terminated by the King Features syndication that hired him for the Sun-Times story. (Ironically AI kept its job).
So Much Data, So Little Understanding
Not long ago I experienced some confusing computer misinformation of my own. After getting a Ring security doorbell, I attempted some online research about what Ring is and how it’s used. The article I found immediately went “off the rails” (there’s an idiom that AI might have trouble with!) First it defined Ring as a circular band worn on the finger as an ornament or symbol. Then it confidently continued on to describe Ring as a Japanese horror movie, highly influential in its genre, with numerous sequels, remakes, and adaptations that solidified its status as a cinematic horror classic. Finally, Ring’s pro side was bulleted as easy to install, affordable, with good video quality, its con side being privacy concerns. Something had quite obviously been lost in AI translation somewhere for this computer research. In spite of this confusing internet fail, I still managed to install the Ring doorbell.
When Your Search Engine Goes Full Hannibal Lecter
By the way, be careful how you phrase your questions to AI- it can make a big difference in the answers you receive. While everyone has occasionally experienced some inaccurate AI responses due to badly worded inquiries, some terribly phrased questions gone wrong deserve a gold medal. A person once asked AI for dog food recipes “using human ingredients” rather than more correctly specifying “human-grade ingredients.” The resulting menu from AI could have been taken straight from my aforementioned Ring horror movie. And early AI bots inaccurately took a Reddit joke (about how to make homemade napalm) as pure fact. Bots proceeded to bizarrely tell questioners to make napalm by mixing gasoline and tomato paste. Nothing says homemade like explosive marinara sauce…
The Internet Promises Wisdom, Not Just Ads, Emojis, & Spellchecks
I remain hopeful for the future of humanity’s relationship with AI though. While Artificial Intelligence is growing incredibly quickly, with many possibly disturbing repercussions, humans are indispensable to shape AI growth. Humans are the ones with conscience, empathy, common sense, context, oversight, and moral judgment- not AI. Humans must set the ethical boundaries and regulations, institute the best accurate AI training data, and establish accountability and recourse if AI systems do wrong.
The key concept is that machine wisdom is to serve humanity- NOT replace or mislead it.
Anyway, I must stop my research and writing now- my smartwatch is telling me to take a moment to breathe.
