I'm intrigued as to why someone, presumably tech-savvy, would do that?

We know they aren't oracles and come up with a lot of false information in response to factual questions.

Google searches also come up with a lot of false information (well, it's where LLMs get their learnin' from — the Internet).

I'm never asking LLMs anything super critical like, "Do my taxes for me." This morning (as an example) I asked: "Is there talk of banning DJI drones in the U.S.?"

Later: "Difference between the RSE20 and RSS20 models of Yamaha electric guitars?"

And "Is there an Eco-Tank ink-jet suitable for Dye-Sub inks that can print Tabloid?"

1) None of the above are "critical".

2) All would have been a slight pain using Google and generated a lot of ... noise. LLMs eat the noise, do a decent job of giving me the salient points that answer my question.

3) All are easily verifiable if, for example, I decided to make a purchase based on what the LLM told me.

Or put another way, my disappointment in LLMs pales in comparison to my disappointment in search.

Or maybe I am just sick of search engines and want to "stick it to them".

In my view it's a pretty straightforward calculation. Nothing is free, no knowledge is instant. Start off knowing your time investment to learn anything is greater than zero and go from there..

If you do a Google (or other engine) search, you have to invest time pawing through the utter pile of shit that Google ads created on the web. Info that's hidden under reams of unnecessary text, potentially out of date, potentially not true; you'll need to evaluate a list of links and, probably, open multiple of them.

If you do an AI "search", you ask one question and get one answer. But the answer might a hallucination or based on incorrect info.

However, a lot of the time, you might be searching for something you already have an idea of, whether it's how to structure a script or what temperature pork is safe at; you can use your existing knowledge to assess the AI's answer. In that case the AI search is fast.

The rest of the time, you can at least tell the AI to include links to its references, and check those. Or its answer may help you construct a better Google search.

Ultimately search is a trash heap of Google's making, and I have absolute confidence in them also turning AI into a trash heap, but for now it is indeed faster for many purposes.