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In the last few hours many users have noticed the new AI powered search feature that has been added to the site.

Missed every actual mention of Twilight Sparkle in my many answers

I'll leave bugs reports and general commentary on how ineffective this is to other posts.

... Soon after being noticed the feature disappeared again.

Was this announced in any way? And if it wasn't, why? Moderators in the Meta chat room seemed unaware too. Was this an undisclosed test, or an error resulting in an unannounced feature being rolled before expected?

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    No. The closest we got is stackoverflow.blog/2024/09/30/… that says "Please read through our community product strategy and roadmap series for more information, including an update from our Community Products team that will be coming later this week." No clue what that update is, but there's no such thing as coincidences with SE Commented Oct 1, 2024 at 13:50

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Thank you for flagging this to us!

This was not supposed to have been released publicly — it was an accidental turning on of the feature that had been previously tested, but there is no new test.

To be clear, there are no current plans to release this on the public platform, even in the future. We've turned it back off.

Apologies for the hiccup!

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    Thank you. From what I saw of the AI search it was making up complete nonsense and misinformation. Commented Oct 1, 2024 at 14:30
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    Any details how this "accidental turning on of the feature" happened, technically? Such thing requires: 1. change in codebase, 2. push to production, 3. approval and deployment, 4. ? Commented Oct 1, 2024 at 14:33
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    @ShadowWizard No details of implementation that I can share, no. But yeah, just an accident :) Commented Oct 1, 2024 at 14:41
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    @ShadowWizard Feature Flag shenanigans, most likely. Commented Oct 1, 2024 at 14:47
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    I think there may be a gap in y'all's process for pushing/enabling things on production. Specifically, I think you may be missing the part where a second developer needs to confirm before something can get enabled on the public platform. This is very critical, because anyone can make a mistake. And, unfortunately, we're seeing a lot of mistakes recently. I don't want to blame anyone for a mistake, because that's just not productive. But it is a real problem writ large, and the fix for that is often getting a double-check inserted somewhere in the process, where 2 devs have to sign off. Commented Oct 1, 2024 at 17:18
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    @CodyGray not to say that there isn't an issue/gap (there have been a few cases recently, it's true), but we do have code review. Commented Oct 1, 2024 at 17:56
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    @CesarM sorry, but that was glaring obvious to see, and it's not the first, not the second, and not the third (and we can keep counting) time this happens, i.e. something that isn't ready yet somehow finds it way to Meta, or the whole network. You're only the messenger, but it really points on some very fundamental problem. (I think the "meh it's fine, only an accident" approach is contributing for this, and means it will just happen again, with some other "feature" that should not be seen or released yet.) Commented Oct 1, 2024 at 18:13
  • @ShadowWizard The fundamental problem is with the whole world's attitude towards computers, not with Stack Exchange in particular. If only we'd listened to Dijkstra, none of this would've happened… Commented Oct 1, 2024 at 20:25
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    @ShadowWizard I don't think it's fair to characterize it as "Meh it's fine, only an accident". I've never said that. Accidents can be quite serious; there's nothing about saying it's an accident that diminishes its seriousness. Rather, accident talks about intention: i.e.; the pilot didn't intend to throw the airplane into the sea; it was an accident. There's a lot that can be learned from accidents and tons of safety measures to be applied from these learnings. That doesn't make the accidents less accident of an accident. Commented Oct 2, 2024 at 15:21
  • @CesarM that is the vibe I get here, as time after time this happens, and it feels like nothing is done to prevent the next "accident". Commented Oct 2, 2024 at 21:00
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    @ShadowWizard "but it really points on some very fundamental problem". Lay off please. You are preaching based on partial knowledge. This stuff happens everywhere. Just more visible here. And things are done to prevent this from happening. But the fact that it still happens is a sign that there are humans involved. You made your point. Move on. Commented Dec 6, 2024 at 7:12
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    @YaakovEllis well, I did move on, but what can I do when there is a fresh AI scandal? Commented Dec 6, 2024 at 8:54

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