That is an accurate assessment. One of it's big advantages is that you can use it to do iterative searching modifying what it previously found and changing the focus - this iterative process was not really possible with previous search engines, at least to the level you can do with AI.
A major limitation with it now is the "library" that was used to build the AI engine. Now try to go look for something outside that library using a non-AI tool. I haven't found a good work around on that one yet...
Last summer I was sailing with a guy that was a complete lover of AI. He had a high end paid subscription to one of the major AI engines. Just a couple years before AI became the de-facto search engine available on Google, I was looking up a particular major incident to make sure I was spelling the name of the company that was found to be the root cause and I could easily find it. Just because I am who I am, I decided to do that same search using the AI engine once it was implemented. Well guess what - that entire incident had been erased from any mention or ability to find it. So I was telling this guy that and he said, "Oh no, can't be, you need a good AI engine!" So, we sat down together on his account and much to his surprise - nope - major international incident as gone poof - no longer able to find anything at all about it.... Rather unnervering I think....
dj
