Публикация

And hey, while I'm here, check out my Substack with more stuff on this column: www.science-forever.com/p/right-now-...

Right now, AI is making science publishing slower, worse, and more expensiveNot Faster, Better, Cheaperwww.science-forever.com

This seems to be a common practice… or a way to identify potential AI slop :)

You used ChatGPT?

Minion Laughing with Popcorn - LOLALT: Minion Laughing with Popcorn - LOLstatic.klipy.com

"does anyone use Google anymore" is killing me. The reason that Google sucks so fucking much is because it's full of generative AI slop! You're not getting better outcomes by going to the source, you're just getting the garbage directly!

No one who has any self-respect uses ChatGPT as a search engine because it isn’t one.

Holden M. Nuts

And I use my vacuum cleaner to check my footnotes. Both our methods suck.

Lmao if this is what he's admitting then the whole thing is absolutely slop Every fucking boomer has advanced AI Psychosis now, and they think the most obvious lies on Earth will work, because their life is a succession of "good catch: I accidentally wiped your hard drive" messages from liebot

Chatgpt is not a search engine, imbecile.

why would you ask a slot machine if a link is real when the actual internet is right there?

bsky.app/profile/shel...

using ChatGPT as to check links is "worst practices", editorially. ChatGPT regularly hallucinates sources *which need to be checked* with an AI-free search engine. You don't seem to realize that you've proven your brain is, as we say, "cooked" by AI

Tell me you did ZERO fact checking without actually saying etc etc

i'm just here for the ratio

Why in the world would you use the lying machine as a search engine? Seems bad.

I'd be embarrassed for you if I wasn't so pissed that you--a scientist--would stoop this low. Epically low. And if you think you get extra credit for "but we checked the links," you're wrong. You don't get extra credit when you've already failed the test.

As of January 2026, Google had over 90% of the world's search engine traffic. What bubble are you living in where "does anyone use Google anymore" is a thing you can ask?

Dumbass

Better people have lost jobs for less.

> all the links were checked by me and again by our copyeditors Seriously consider removing the cruft from the end of URLs, i.e. the operators that usually come after ? and & signs that don't affect loading the URL

> does anyone use Google anymore? Per June 2026 stats, Google has 91% share of the search engine market 🤷 gs.statcounter.com/search-engin...

ChatGPT is not a search engine you chump

ChatGPT isn't a search engine at all, and using it as one (or as anything at all besides a fancy markov generator) invites disaster

Huh. I’m moved my default search engine on phone and laptop to DuckDuckGo to avoid the use of AI with google. Going to ChatGPT is…a choice 😳

No-one cares. There's loads of AI-free search engines you could use that would've done the job.

Protip, Holden: ChatGPT is bad for fact checking because it doesn’t know what facts are. It doesn’t know anything. It’s a probability-based word vomitor. Hope this helps.

why would you tell anyone this

This... this must be satire???? Is the editor in chief unaware of how much AI hallucinates???

that’s not what a search engine is

Chatgpt isn't a search engine and regularly makes up stuff to make the user feel smart. Do not use LLMs for research you fool

Kagi is $10/month. It has optional AI but it works great without it.

Please start by explaining specifically how ChatGPT and google are both search engines.

Well that was silly.

soup brain

😬

I said what I said, but I never thought it’d need saying to somebody who works for Science 👇

oh god, why

“do people even do a thing anymore that i don’t do?” why certainly not, of course

Hello, Holden. You've lost a lot of cred in my eyes, as I never use any kind of AI chatbot of whatever sort to do any work for me in any way. Whether or not you think you've written anything and had it checked by copyeditors, your text is now suspect in my eyes, and tainted. Bye.

Quit your job, Holden

No m8 I use duckduckgo

Pig poop balls ass post

I'll grant partial credit on this take, Google and ChatGPT are both creating unnecessary stress on the planet by attaching LLMs to search. Time once was, I didn't need to use many other options, but now I have to waste more time cross checking. I still don't use **generative** AI to search though.

maybe just don’t.

I think it’s hilarious how commenters here treat Google results as the Bible and ChatGPT “as a search engine” as an apostate

I'm having a hard time understanding why this (well-argued) statement in paragraph three of your article wouldn't apply to the kind of research you're describing (finding valuable links to inform the argument of your article) as well as scientific research!

Holy fuck, you're an idiot.

Good lord. Why on earth would you think that using ChatGPT as a search engine was a good idea. Surely you are educated enough to know better. 😬

well then you're a real credulous dumbfuck aren't you holden

Checked by You or ChatGPT, there IS a difference believe it or not

🤔 this you, holden?

this is just embarrassing, my dude

To answer your question, yes, people still use Google (or alternatives), particularly if they're not interested in having to check every detail for whether or not it was hallucinated

Google has lost its advantage over other search engines. But most millennials and younger can write search queries well enough that it is more efficient to directly search through the engines.

ChatGPT as a search engine!? Huh?

Does anyone use google anymore? No, we all just ask our friend “Shrooms” Georg, who hallucinates at least 30% of the articles he tells us about. It’s okay because we’re just using Georg as a research tool and we check all his results. Also he starts wildfires but that’s not important right now

my brother in christ chatgpt is not a search engine

Hey dipshit, ChatGPT isn't a search engine, it's a probabilistic text generator with no capacity for evaluating information on grounds of accuracy or relevancy. You might as well search using Bofa.

Gross.

Using ChatGPT as your search engine is like using a refrigerator as your air conditioner.

please unemerge, bruh

Switch to Claude! And then switch again. AI is the best search engine.

Appreciate the warning that your writing is based on faulty research.

WHY??! Why are you using the planet-immolating, text-extruding plagiarism machine FOR ANYTHING? Are you lazy? Are you unprofessional af? You know how to do this the right way, there’s no excuse.

I was going to reply with something snide and dismissive and then I found out you’re the editor in chief of Science and I honestly am too shocked to say anything except maybe humanity is totally screwed.

Edited by humans but they don't even bother to clean their links.

Here's a question - why would you include links with tracking info in them at all? Why would a published article not use clean links? At best this smacks of lack of care.

You can't be this foolish

what an idiot.

This is not the flex you think it is. Just don't use the plagiarism machine that can't tell legitimate sources from bogus ones at all.

I use a search engine as a search engine.

"does anyone use Google anymore?" Of course we do. Why would you use an LLM for simple web searches?

ChatGPT is not a search engine, you utter moron

you cant use ChatGPT as an search engine. ChatGPT is not a search engine. Academics usually still use Google Scholar although it is detereorating, research gate and their library portals. There you can find real scientific papers with working hyperlinks. Hope this helps in reaching your degree!

well that's stupid

That doesn't even make sense.

You’re the editor of Science? This is really embarrassing.

"I promise I did extra work to make sure the pollution spewing water guzzling hallucination machine didn't lie to me & it was edited by people they just all missed the obvious tells that I used the plagiarism machine that emits a low humming 24/7 that is in no way harming nearby animals or people"

This is really disappointing.

Go back on hiatus, because if that's true you never checked anything. You just blindly trusted the hallucination machine. Which SHOULD be an embarrassing thing to admit to, but, here you are.

I use Myspace as my search engine but it's not a competition

That was a stupid fucking thing to do.

Dude, if you’re asking this, you’re not fit to be editor in chief at a zine, let alone a university

oh, that is very embarrassing for you.

"I use the plagiarism slop machine as my search engine, can't believe things went wrong!" Might be time to retire old man, you've lost the plot entirely and cannot be trusted to do the work any more.

If you are too idle to search for references without using a likely hallucinating AI, then do I trust you or your copy editors to check the links? Hell, no. You have to know that it is only a matter of time before one AI-induced error gets out in print and then you will look totally incompetent.

you’re a huge dumbass, got it. thank you!

Is this sarcasm ?

File under "attempted defenses that made it sound even worse"

You checked for hallucinations with the hallucination service? I feel so much better now

Hey Holden My-Nuts-In-Your-Mouth, you know ChatGPT isn’t a search engine right?

... why would you use a Plausible Text Generator as a search engine? That's literally not its function.

Very disappointing given the peril of science under this regime.

"I used ChatGPT as a search engine" is the 21st Century equivalent of giving the old homeless tweaker living under the overpass a bottle of hooch to learn the secrets of the universe. Or believing the Dim Mak is real.

Thanks. Could you elaborate on the difference between "checking the links in the piece" as performed with ChatGPT and the process by which "the links were checked by me"? Was ChatGPT ever prompted to add references or supporting examples? How specifically did the links make it into the document?

DuckDuckGo is a search engine. Qwant is a search engine. Startpage is a search engine. Bing is a search engine. ChatGPT is not a search engine. I hope this helps.

Fossils like me use Pubmed :)

You fool.

This explains why you published Schön's work.

The EOC of *Science* not knowing that ChatGPT cannot be reasonably treated as a search engine… 😬

AI is a pretty decent search engine if you use it right. I've been able to go from extremely fuzzy semantic descriptions to results fairly reliably, the trick is you actually let it run a bunch of searches for you and collate results instead of just relying on what's in the weights. /1

Using a LLM as a search engine makes me wonder what other things you do terribly wrong.

If you had used Google, you might have had a similar problem with ARM links that Google uses to hijack links.

thorped it again huh sport

ChatGPT isn’t even a good search engine.

Imagine using a text prompter for research instead of actually doing any actual research.

Why should we believe you when we have evidence you used ChatGPT and you're claimed use case is strange? Oh, and you make an appeal to shame to defend your use case (oh, everyone's using ChatGPT to search now, aren't you? you'd be the weird one if you aren't, better say you are).

Is this sarcasm?

Llms are not search engines.

1) ChatGPT is not a search engine. 2) Why on earth would you and (more importantly) your copyeditors leave the utm tags on the links in a published article? That's just sloppy (no pun intended).

Is this satire?

So your go-to search engine got worse due to integrated AI shite and your solution was to use an AI chatbot that isn’t even a search engine? And you write about *science*?!

Yup, I use kagi.com it's like Google used to be. Your need an account for your first free 100 searches, after that you have to give payment info, I'm happy on the less than $5 a month plan, unlimited is under $10.

Kagi - Reclaim the Web & Restore Your PrivacyReclaim the web from clutter. Get ad-free search, private browsing, and powerful tools that respect your data.kagi.com

hi, don’t bother emerging again bro

Sorry, no other way to say this but this is quite dumb of you to do.

Hi Holden you're a dick

how embarrassing for you.

You would be surprised by how many people don’t default to using ChatGPT for searching. I’ve never used and it and honestly, I think if you use ChatGPT to search, you’re a piece of shit.

It seems you're living in a bit of a bubble. Yes people still use Google. I've personally stopped using it because they've incorporated too much AI... So I simply use other search engines.

Nobody uses Google but it's because of the AI slop lol, replacing it with nothing BUT AI slop is wild

ChatGPT is not a search engine, is a make shit up machine!

More like Holden the L

OH!!! Ok, so you're absolutely terrible at your job, which is why you use ChatGPT. It's nice to work with something on your level! I get it!

Only a fucking idiot would use a chatbot as a search engine

Wack

I don’t know who you are but you seem dumb

(does anyone do science anymore?)

Watch out, buddy

1. ChatGPT is *not* a search engine. 2. The fact you don't understand that really, really skewers my ability to trust anything else you say.

Oh good, proof that you are doing shoddy work

ChatGPT is literally not a search engine and you’re a fucking moron.

That sounds really bad, Holden. Why do you think you should still have any credibility?

So basically you don’t care if the info you get is correct? Wtf?

WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU USE CHATGPT AS A SEARCH ENGINE? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?

ChatGPT is NOT a search engine. It's a making thins up accoring to a promot and sometimes hitting on an actual thing that existed before-engine. Google is just as much a bot now as ChatGPT is. Both are terrible things to use for anything that you want to be taken even remotely seriously.

Is...this a bit?

What Did You Say Puppy Cute PuppyALT: What Did You Say Puppy Cute Puppystatic.klipy.com

Tldr: "I am an incompetent fool! Ask me how!"

Gross!

I use Google, it's so much better than AI hallucinating search results

This is really embarrassing and shameful.

ChatGPT is not a search engine, my dude.

Tholden Horp

why would anyone assume competence out of you here

The reason people don't use Google is its de facto become an LLM interface rather than a search engine. That does not magically make using a different LLM that's openly always been an LLM as your 'search engine' make sense, the two technologies are not interchangeable.

Well, it's not a search engine...

Hey using the plagiarism machine that destroys drinking water and pollutes minority neighborhoods is never a good idea, for any reason How are you this dumb? Genuinely curious

Honestly like saying "why would anyone still use a car to get around when it's so much more efficient and sensible to commute on a lawnmower?"

i wouldn't even let you holden deez nuts

Hi, Holden. It’s dumb to think ChatGPT is a search engine. Hope this helps.

I'm a science journalist. I write for SciAm, Nat Geo, New Scientist, CNN, etc. Yes, I still use Google for search. I also click on links to ensure they work/go where I want them to. So do my editors (last New Sci piece I wrote I DID make a linking error/linked to the same piece 2X). That's editing.

“Using chatGPT as my search engine” my god some people are just frying their own fucking brains. Is there anyone in a bigger bubble than the AI superfans?

Hi, since apparently being a professor doesn’t mean knowing how to check sources anymore, you should know that chatgpt is NOT A SEARCH ENGINE IT PRODUCES PLAUSIBLE-LOOKING TEXT WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING.

So you searched using a machine that makes up lies and then copied those lies out by hand? Cool cool cool. Sounds reliable.

aw, man

Yes, lots of people use Google, and there's a way to turn off AI results which takes only a few minutes. proton.me/blog/how-to-... (you want the bit headed "Save as a custom search engine on Chrome") For the sake of your scientific integrity, please consider doing that.

How to turn off Google AI on Search | ProtonTired of seeing AI Overview on Google Search? Here are a few simple ways to turn it off.proton.me

Translation: I used ChatGPT, and *it* wrote this piece, and then I looked at it, tweaked a sentence or two, sent it in front of a minimum-wage student assistant and / or barely living wage admin assistant to verify that I hadn’t missed anything egregious, and then I said “good enough” and posted it.

Using ChatGPT as a search engine is like taking a private jet to go grocery shopping.

???

Oh, so you’re stupid

ChatGPT is not and can never be a search engine, and I am *shocked* that a scientist does not know this.

That is fully unacceptable.

How embarrassing for you.

Using ChatGPT as a search engine is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard

Using google is effectively using chatGPT and therefore useless.

Buddy you couldn’t waterboard that kind of info outta me

Shouldn't the editor of a science journal know that AI hallucinates? What was wrong with non-AI search, exactly?

more like holden this L

how’s this goin for ya boss

What a shitty and stupid thing to do. Didn’t know you before this post, now I think you’re garbage.

"This piece was written by me, I just did my research by mashing the middle button of my phone's autocomplete over and over, that's totally cool, right?"

chatgpt is not a search engine

Note to self. Block this guy.

Why should anyone take seriously a person who uses ChatGPT as a search engine? (ChatGPT is not a search engine.)

His does using AI to check your links result in the utm_source including chatgpt? That seems to indicate you were using it to generate the links, not check ones you already had. And why would you need a search engine to check a link?

Large language models are not search engines

So no one thought to cut down the urls by stripping off the question mark and everything after, leaving just the page address. Souns like your house style guide needs updating. bsky.app/profile/hold...

Are you embarrassed? Because you should be.

What an incredibly foolish thing to do.

yes i use google scholar 🙋‍♀️ and google patents and kagi search for everything else

Chat is not a search engine so I, a human copy editor, don't know what to tell you

ChatGPT isn’t a search engine bro

Lazy.

ChatGPT is not a search engine so why the fuck would you do that.

Did ChatGPT give you this hot take too? The answer is "damn near everyone uses Google, you spanner" 🤷🏼‍♀️ P.S. limiting your sources to ChatGPT's recommendations is little different to letting it write it for you.

Why would you rely solely on ChatGPT when it's extremely well recognized that no AI engine is capable of producing or collecting citations in a fully-accurate manner?

I feel bad for your students. Don't use llm's as a search engine. Better to not use them at all

I recommend not trying to use LLMs as search engines.

"We worked twice as hard to make this robot feel loved"