As I integrate it into my research process, I’m realizing that what we’re being sold as “AI” is much better described as “Synthetic Search.”

Perplexity is to Google what Calculus is to Algebra.

I can give an LLM a “multivariate query,” which not only can be phrased in natural language, but even in sloppy, fragmentary natural language;

And it will return a synthesized amalgam of the results of that search, connected in a way that mirrors my question. Often including assumptions that were baked into my question explicit, or suggesting likely extensions and implications based on the way results and parallel questions in the dataset have been constructed.

It is incredibly useful.

It is not intelligent.