4 ms·

Shopping moving from brick and mortar to online was truly revolutionary. Compare a few taps on your phone to getting in your car, getting gas, driving to store,

Shopping moving from brick and mortar to online was truly revolutionary. Compare a few taps on your phone to getting in your car, getting gas, driving to store, locating item, waiting in line, paying, getting back in your car, etc and the time savings are astounding. And there are still brick and mortar stores everywhere because a lot of people simply like to shop and browse all the options. I just don’t see the need to trust ChatGPT to do my shopping for me. Earlier today at a red light I searched for something I needed on Amazon, found a good option and ordered it all before the light turned green. Maybe for cheap things that don’t matter or commodities it would be fine to just tell ChatGPT or Alexa to order something for you but it’s really not that revolutionary compared to what we already have. If OpenAI is going to get a cut of every transaction, they’ll just make the purchase that secures the highest commission for them. This is akin to telling google to buy the first ad in their search results for you. Do a lot of people make a purchase with the I’m feeling lucky button sight unseen? Ok so maybe you don’t like the first option the chatbot gives you and it presents the next one…and the next one…then we’re basically back where we started at that point? I prefer to spend an extra few seconds comparing the options so I know what I’m getting and I’m not even someone who enjoys shopping. I think ChatGPT will be game changing for a lot of things but not for online shopping.

sxanus 4y ago
I always imagined that we would have personal assistants (personal ChatGPTs) that are trained with our treats and after watching a few times which could learn by our standards. They could even do negotiations for us as it knows our price elasticity as well!
- jliptzin 4y ago
  That would make sense if we didn’t already have online shopping that is so easy and seamless. I know what I like and can already find it and order it inside of literally 15 seconds, 1 minute maximum. Is that minimal time savings worth the creepy factor of a corporate chatbot learning every little thing about you? Have we not been paying attention to the last 10 years with respect to privacy concerns surrounding ad tech? There’s things about shopping that are monotonous and annoying and there are things that are pleasant and fun. Online shopping already took away 99% of the monotonous, annoying things like driving, waiting in line, etc. I don’t mind spending 10 minutes looking at pictures of 5 different hotels for my vacation, well worth it to make sure thousands of dollars are well spent. It does make sense to let a bot handle routine things like toilet paper and dog food but we already solved stuff like that with subscriptions.
  - sxanus 4y ago
    I definitely have concerns about security, but I think Google already knows as well. What if OpenAI would promise us to keep our data in our OpenAI device and actually run most of the operations in the device while having limited data sync with their server?
    - whitemary 4y ago
      I wouldn't believe ChatGPT about what it's doing with my data any more than I would believe a human.

sxanus 4y ago

I always imagined that we would have personal assistants (personal ChatGPTs) that are trained with our treats and after watching a few times which could learn by our standards. They could even do negotiations for us as it knows our price elasticity as well!

jliptzin 4y ago
That would make sense if we didn’t already have online shopping that is so easy and seamless. I know what I like and can already find it and order it inside of literally 15 seconds, 1 minute maximum. Is that minimal time savings worth the creepy factor of a corporate chatbot learning every little thing about you? Have we not been paying attention to the last 10 years with respect to privacy concerns surrounding ad tech? There’s things about shopping that are monotonous and annoying and there are things that are pleasant and fun. Online shopping already took away 99% of the monotonous, annoying things like driving, waiting in line, etc. I don’t mind spending 10 minutes looking at pictures of 5 different hotels for my vacation, well worth it to make sure thousands of dollars are well spent. It does make sense to let a bot handle routine things like toilet paper and dog food but we already solved stuff like that with subscriptions.
- sxanus 4y ago
  I definitely have concerns about security, but I think Google already knows as well. What if OpenAI would promise us to keep our data in our OpenAI device and actually run most of the operations in the device while having limited data sync with their server?
  - whitemary 4y ago
    I wouldn't believe ChatGPT about what it's doing with my data any more than I would believe a human.