Google vs. ChatGPT: A Personal Experience

Or, pages of reading vs. an answer

I want to share a personal experience I had recently that really highlights the qualitative difference of using two methods to answer the same simple technical question.

The question was:

What's the 3.1 equivalent of
FROM microsoft/dotnet:2.2-sdk AS build-env?

I used Google and ChatGPT to try to find the answer, and the results were very different.

1st I tried Google

I started by using Google to search for the answer to my question. Unfortunately, the top 10 results that I received were not helpful and did not provide the information I needed. 

Frustrated after just 1 link clicked, I decided to try asking ChatGPT instead. 

I tried ChatGPT next:

Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT by contrast, was able to just provide a direct and accurate answer to my question.

Here is the response I received from ChatGPT:

To use the .NET Core 3.1 SDK in a Dockerfile, use the following instead: 

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/sdk:3.1

As you can see, ChatGPT was able to provide a specific and relevant answer to my question, while Google was not able to do so, at least not if I hold the same expectations with respect to quality and user experience. 

Call me spoiled, but even after just a few weeks, I now expect to be able to ask follow up questions. 😳

The very notion of "follow up" questions are just not really even a thing on Google, right?  I mean, you can refine your search I guess... but...

Not all sunshine and roses

However, it's really important to note, as I have talked about a number of times now, ChatGPT is not 100% accurate, and in fact much of the time is wrong at best and straight up lying at worse.  

You have to watch it like a hawk and must take everything it says with a grain of salt, so it is really important to double-check and verify all of it's responses.

Despite this, in my experience, ChatGPT has been for me, over the last 3-4 weeks, a dramatically more efficient and reliable way to acquire information than anything I've ever experienced before in my life, including using Google - as amazing as Google still is. 

For example, to confirm what ChatGPT says, I still use Google, if for no other reason than ChatGPT almost never cites it's sources.

Conclusion:

Overall, this experience really illustrated for me, one of the main benefits of using ChatGPT for finding information. But while it can provide quick and accurate answers to specific questions, it is important to be aware of their limitations and to verify their responses.

In my experience, the bottom line is that I now use Google dramatically less frequently and rely more on ChatGPT for finding information throughout my day.  As mentioned however, it is important to constantly monitor and oversee their work, to ensure that they are providing accurate and reliable information.