What does a LLM know about you compared to a Search Engine?

I think about how much more a LLM knows about me compared to a traditional¹ search engine. I provide the llm way more information compared to a search engine since I use it way more interactively. A search engine does not provide me with results based on a previous query. The queries are always isolated and not based on each other². That’s different with llms. I could ask for a list of restaurants in my area. And then follow up with filters for this list, e.g. asking for restaurants (from the initial list) that are open this evening and provide vegan dishes. Using a search engine, I’d start with the same first query, asking for a list of restaurant recommendations, but then I would look at the recommendations one by one by myself. I definitely could also ask the search engine in the first place for “a list of vegan restaurants” but as soon as I’d ask for “a list of vegan restaurants opened tonight” some - if not all - search engine won’t be able to provide me with valid results. Thus, the llm learns more from me than the search engine (in this example, it would know that I might eat a restaurant tonight). This is just a simple example but I think interacting with the llm let them learn so much more from us than we think. Probably, you can compare it to humans interacting with each other. If you have a conversation, reacting on the things the other person is saying, you learn more than just telling / listening without a reaction.

I wouldn’t be surprised if llm companies would try to learn more and more about their users. They could implement this by simply trying to ask for more information:

“Hey LLM, provide me a list of fancy Chinese restaurants with vegan dishes in Berlin that are open tonight”

“Sure, here’s a list: … Should I reserve a table for you?”

“Yes, please. 8p.m., 2 persons, restaurant X”

“Ok, who are you going with? Any special occasion?“

„I‘m going with Bob. It’s his birthday tonight.”

And now it knows Bob and his birthday. From there it’s not far until it knows your relation with Bob. Is he your coworker? At what company are you both working? Is he in the IT-department? No, sales? So you’re probably talking about your customers and what they want and their pain points. Maybe Bob should have a look at Y. This could help him solve his problems with his latest decline in sales.