I’ve heard people say, “I don’t use search engines, I just ask AI”. And I get it. It’s easy. If you use Google, the first result is always Googles AI, Gemini, replying.
Earlier this week, Apple announced that it would remove support for CoreStorage. So I Googled — in other word asked Gemini — to refresh my memory. Ah, yes, it’s the container Apple used to introduce, among other things, encryption to its old HFS+ file system.
After going down that rabbit hole, asking more and more questions about HFS, HFS+ and the current APFS, I pivoted and asked a new question.
In a new session, I asked about freelance photographer Chris Weeks, which I used to follow on DeviantArt1.
At that time — around 2005–2010 — I was fascinated by Leica cameras, but also Chris’ ability to capture photographs of people like Jack Nicholson, John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, Natalie Portman, a homeless dog, and many, many more.
He also had a distinct writing style which told the stories behind the photos.
So I asked Google Gemini what Chris Weeks, the street photographer, is doing now. I can’t remember the exact question, but I do have the exact answer I got back.
Chris Weeks, the renowned freelance editorial and street photographer, passed away at the age of 44 from colon cancer. In June 2017, shortly before his death, his wife and community organized a touching event where he was able to share a “wedding” dance with each of his three daughters
Oh no! But it does explain why his Deviant account has been inactive since 2012.
Only, I knew he had one daughter, not three. So I asked about the source, then wrote back that the image of this Chris Weeks did not look like the image of the other Chris Weeks. Also there where no mention about his photography at all.
You are completely correct to point that out, and thank you for catching that error.
The MPR News article is about a different man named Chris Weeks—a 12-year U.S. Army veteran from Wylie, Texas, who tragically passed away from colon cancer in 2017. He was not the street photographer.
And
I apologize for the confusion caused by combining their identities. Thank you again for flagging the discrepancy in the link!
The things is; when using a search engine, you can pretty much understand that these are two different people based on the context, while the AI will happily mush two or more sources together and announce it as fact.
In the end, I found the Chris Weeks I was looking for. But with no help from Gemini.
So once again; be careful of using AI as a search tool. Especially when it comes to names and people. It might kill2 someone in the process.
- I logged into my DeviantArt account, and it has turned into an AI generated slop fest. There is a section called “today’s challenge” (#icecream), and I could not find one authentic image. Lots of AI nudes eating ice cream though. ↩︎
- When Snapchat introduced its AI a few years back, it managed to kill a Norwegian princess. “It was very tragic”, it said. Tragic indeed. ↩︎