How would you feel if you want to find information about a particular thing, but the search engine of an AI chatbot returns a result about something related, not exactly what you want to find? It is frustrating, the system thinks it knows better what you need. There is a term, topic drift, that perfectly describes the situation.
Topic drifts are common in the cosmetic ingredients field. Any search engine or AI system has an internal mechanism for correcting queries in case an orthographic error occurs in the keyword or question. However, the systems' evaluation brings them to the stage where they ignore self-mistakes in processing queries and return results about other, even related topics. Moreover, they removed feedback opportunities, such as "Did you mean" options, to correct their possible mistakes.
The classic example of topic drift in the cosmetic ingredients field is "Pentapeptide-4", which is an "ancestor" of the famous mainstream peptide Matrixyl (Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4). Sederma developed both peptides; however, Pentapeptide-4 was overlooked due to delivery issues at the time. If you try to search "Pentapeptide-4" on Google, Bing, and most AI chatbots will perform a classic topic drift, returning results about Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 and ignoring the fact that Pentapeptide-4 itself is used as a targeting peptide in modern, advanced peptide-based complexes.
What about a topic drift in website content?
Unfortunately, topic drifts are common on many websites that focus on cosmetic ingredients. It is a harmful practice that aims to capture as much traffic as possible, rather than providing accurate, precise, and helpful information.
If editors can't find information about a particular ingredient but know there is demand, they obtain something related and rewrite the content, changing the ingredient name. Who cares about checking facts, quality, or accuracy? It is a related substance and should have similar properties.
The situation is even worse in the case of AI-generated content, which can even put a text about an unrelated ingredient in their names that have a similar base, e.g., output rewritten text about Oligopeptide-20 with the title Oligopeptide-177.
What to do?
If you know the exact name of the ingredient (e.g., as listed on the packaging), but receive information about another one, provide negative feedback to the search engine or AI chatbot. In the case of a chatbot, you can also request that it correct its answer.
If you face topic drift in an article posted on a website, you already know that it is not a trustworthy source. Additionally, you can report the website to the search engine if you found it there, or if an AI chatbot cites it, ask it to avoid citing that website.