ChatGPT can give you advice on buying a Mac-the wrong advice

Don't let ChatGPT give you advice on buying a new Mac

- ROMAN LOYOLA

As an editor who's been covering Apple for a long time, I'm often asked by family, friends, and acquaintances about which Mac to buy. I have knowledge and insight that people can tap into conveniently through a conversation, saving someone from hours of research, a task that can be daunting, intimidating, and confusing.

When using Google or another search engine, results appear as a list of websites, and then it's up to you to find the information you need. That could take a lot of time, maybe even several hours. But generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT (fave.co/ 43iwp9G) and Google Bard (fave.co/43cwSKf) can possibly cut that time down to a few minutes, akin to the conversations I have.

However, the buzz about how empowering generative Al tools can be (fave.co/ 3Mbv7aN) was accompanied by reports and incidents of inaccuracies and the perpetuation of falsehoods. And now that ChatGPT is going to be used a lot more thanks to its official iPhone app (fave.co/3COJKHr), I wanted to see how well it can do with one of the most common questions: Which Mac should I buy? Will it draw from its extensive knowledge to provide helpful insight and information? Will it know the differences between the lines and processors? And most importantly, will it be accurate?

DID GENERATIVE AI HELP MAKE A BUYING DECISION?

At the moment, ChatGPT can't be relied upon to make a specific recommendation because of its dataset. It also has the propensity to get things wrong yet present misinformation as facts. That wasn't unexpected-ChatGPT is up front about its limitations. It literally has a "Limitations" section on its site.