Using AI with getting questions answered - Has anyone dug into it?

[Bassman2003]

I guess I am not a fan of linking part of your grain bill to pH control. If you add it late in the mash it will still lower the overall wort pH. It is your grain bill, so all of it will be added no matter what. Lactic acid is nothing to be concerned with or to avoid.

I guess this is a strategy if one does not want to add the dark malts but without measuring the pH drop, it is kind of a shot in the dark.

 

[Snuffy]

This is true, and I can't disagree. However, forums are also a great place to "lose" information. It's very time consuming to sift through a million posts looking for that one comment you knew you read 4 years ago and want to find it. Forums are also very conducive to repeat posting. I'm pretty sure that if my forum search skills were better honed, I'd of been able to find all the answers to my questions I've posted here. However, I often find it's easier to just post a new thread with my question and it'll get new information from people too.

Can you get the AI to search a specific forum with a very detailed set of criteria to help find that 4 yr old post? I've avoided the whole AI thing so far other than just playing because, honestly, it kind of creeps me out.

 

[Dland]

I recently did a search for a refresher on a mechanical procedure I had not done in a while on one of my trucks. The first answer from google was a stand alone AI post that I knew to be incorrect, and it referred to parts that are not even on the truck in question. That tells me all I need to know as far as trusting that. Some of the subsequent human posts on a diesel repair forum were quite helpful.

 

[johnsonpvb17]

Maybe I'm old enough to know better, but if an AI prompt doesn't provide responses that make sense to you as one knowledgeable enough to frame intelligent questions on a subject, then consider it "garbage out".

 

[mac_1103]

if an AI prompt doesn't provide responses that make sense to you as one knowledgeable enough to frame intelligent questions on a subject, then consider it "garbage out".

And what does this say about being "one knowledgeable enough to frame intelligent questions on a subject"?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

A couple of summary 'news' items - because the next "AI" modeling technique(s) may be different (and perhaps better) than the current LLMs.

 

[worlddivides]

As another funny example I was thinking "Wort can't be skunked, right? I'm pretty sure it can't, but why would that be?" so I typed "can wort be skunked?" into Google and Google's "AI" response at the top said that it can't, but the hilariously wrong part was in the description.

"Wort's composition:
Wort, the liquid produced before fermentation, primarily consists of malt sugars, water, and sometimes some added sugars. It doesn't contain hops or the specific hop compounds that are susceptible to light-induced skunking."

Whoa, it doesn't contain hops or hop compounds?! So they just magically appear during fermentation? The idea that hops weren't used in beer until roughly a millennia ago is wrong. Hops are a byproduct of fermentation, apparently.

Of course wort does contain hops and the specific hop compounds that are susceptible to light-induced skunking (isomerized alpha acids). From what I gather, the thing that wort lacks that beer has that causes skunking is riboflavin, which is a product of fermentation that you won't get until yeast is added.

Anyway, it made me laugh, so I thought I'd share.

 

[fluketamer]

"Of course wort does contain hops "

not all wort contains hops:

unhopped concentrated brewers wort.

google AI is the worst of the AI's btw.

this is what grok had to say:

can wort get skunked


Yes, wort can get skunked, but it’s not exactly the same as beer getting skunked. Wort, the sweet liquid extracted from mashing grains during brewing, is vulnerable to off-flavors if exposed to certain conditions. Skunking in beer happens when UV light reacts with hop compounds, creating a sulfur-like, skunky aroma. Wort, before it’s fermented, doesn’t have significant hop compounds yet, so true skunking is unlikely. However, if wort is exposed to light (especially UV) or improper storage conditions, it can develop off-flavors from oxidation or microbial contamination, which some might describe as "skunked" in a broader sense.
For example, if wort sits too long without being boiled or cooled properly, bacteria like Lactobacillus or wild yeast can spoil it, leading to funky, unpleasant smells or tastes. Keeping wort in a sanitary, light-protected environment and processing it quickly (boiling, cooling, and pitching yeast) minimizes this risk. If you meant "skunked" in a specific context or have details about the wort’s handling, let me know, and I can dig deeper!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Anyway, it made me laugh, so I thought I'd share.

 

[worlddivides]

"Of course wort does contain hops "

this is what grok had to say:

can wort get skunked


Yes, wort can get skunked, but it’s not exactly the same as beer getting skunked. Wort, the sweet liquid extracted from mashing grains during brewing, is vulnerable to off-flavors if exposed to certain conditions. Skunking in beer happens when UV light reacts with hop compounds, creating a sulfur-like, skunky aroma. Wort, before it’s fermented, doesn’t have significant hop compounds yet, so true skunking is unlikely. However, if wort is exposed to light (especially UV) or improper storage conditions, it can develop off-flavors from oxidation or microbial contamination, which some might describe as "skunked" in a broader sense.
For example, if wort sits too long without being boiled or cooled properly, bacteria like Lactobacillus or wild yeast can spoil it, leading to funky, unpleasant smells or tastes. Keeping wort in a sanitary, light-protected environment and processing it quickly (boiling, cooling, and pitching yeast) minimizes this risk. If you meant "skunked" in a specific context or have details about the wort’s handling, let me know, and I can dig deeper!

I mean, I guess if you're making gruit, then that wort wouldn't contain hops, but 99% of the time, wort contains hops. When I started brewing with extract, none of the extract I used had hops in it, but 100% of the wort I made with that extract contained hops. For it to not contain hops, either you screwed up or were making gruit.

Grok is definitely better than Google's AI, but it didn't even answer what you asked. You asked about skunking and it answered about microbial contamination, oxidation, and other off-flavors that no one would (at least no one who knows what the term is referring to) describe as "skunked." Plus, it's answer of unfermented wort not having "significant hop compounds yet" is the same incorrect answer Google's AI gave (though Google said it had no hop compounds, while Grok says it has insufficient hop compounds - both are wrong).

 

[Bassman2003]

I think this whole endeavor is kind of wrong. It just seems like "fun with computers" that benefits some large business entities while replacing humans by copying human behavior?

I see that Google now has a summary at the top of the page of email strings. It summarizes your own email that is right below that YOU participated in. Like I need this? It speaks of you in the third person. How stupid this looks to me. And they are spending how much on GPUs to bring this functionality?

 

[VikeMan]

And they are spending how much on GPUs to bring this functionality?

I don't know how much they are spending on GPUs. But I do know there's a plan to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in PA, to supply a Microsoft AI data center.

 

[Bassman2003]

Crazy.

 

[fluketamer]

I don't know how much they are spending on GPUs. But I do know there's a plan to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in PA, to supply a Microsoft AI data center.

this three mile island:
https://www.netflix.com/title/81198239

holy #u(&!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Tragedy of the commons?

 

[Bassman2003]

I am sure Google is the most concerned out of everybody. No clicks means no money. They are offering these AI summaries to keep up but I am sure they are seeing revenues decrease since people are stopping at the summary.

 

[VikeMan]

I am sure Google is the most concerned out of everybody. No clicks means no money. They are offering these AI summaries to keep up but I am sure they are seeing revenues decrease since people are stopping at the summary.

It's shocking how many people read the "AI Overview" and nothing else. There's nothing quite like a good hallucination for medical, financial, or legal advice. Or to "settle" a debate. The dumbing down of the planet is frightening.

 

[Bassman2003]

Convenience has been the mechanism for the growth of the entire internet. Sadly, there is a always a quality tradeoff for convenience. It will probably take longer than we expect but I think we are sailing into scary waters. A select few who know & control a lot of the inner workings of things. When AI does replace a lot of current jobs, what are the people going to be hired for that don't do specific types of work? Not that anybody deserves a job and this is not a political statement but we are going to have a crisis just for sake of being "efficient".

 

[MaxStout]

A couple decades ago it was conventional wisdom among SEO types that a typical user wouldn't look beyond the first page of SERPs. Now users don't even bother to scroll down below the AI summary.

Dumbing down, indeed. Or laziness. Or both.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Two DuckDuckGo searches (100,000 GPUs) and (1,000,000 GPUs).

... and, for those interested in the first layer of details for an LLM data center (link). Additional web searches will yield some insights into the challenges, costs, and impacts of "running" that many GPUs.

... and (finally) an article with an estimate (link) of the power consumption for 1,000,000 GPUs.

... and this from Business Insider