> "But scientific facts are a different story. Nobody has any incentive to claim that 1+2=4 or that some function in Python does X when it really does Y."
Incentive is irrelevant. What mattes is whether these things do happen, irrespective of intent -- and they do! I very, very frequently find incorrect answers to math questions, tech function questions, etc.
Incentive is an important part of the dynamic, but it's not important to consider if we're looking empirically at the integrity of the results.
> "So when you search for these kind of facts on Google you can pretty sure that you get correct answers, or at least someone trying to give you the best answer they can. But not so with GPT."
It is so with GPT. Both systems are "trying to give you the best answer."
I think what you're observing is that the Google search engine has two decades and billions of dollars behind it and ChatGPT is a research preview - not even a finished product.
I remember using search engines in the late 90s (in fact, I worked on one of the leading ones). I think you are extending far too much credit.
