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The number of comments in the thread talking about 4o as if it were their best friend the shared all their secrets with is concerning. Lotta lonely folks out th
by monster_truck 1y ago
The number of comments in the thread talking about 4o as if it were their best friend the shared all their secrets with is concerning. Lotta lonely folks out there
- delfinom 1y agoWait until you see https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/ They are very upset by the gpt5 model
- pmarreck 1y agooh god, this is some real authentic dystopia right here these things are going to end up in android bots in 10 years too (honestly, I wouldn't mind a super smart, friendly bot in my old age that knew all my quirks but was always helpful... I just would not have a full-on relationship with said entity!)
- hdgvhicv 1y agoDon’t date robots. https://youtu.be/JPQJBgWwg3o https://youtu.be/JPQJBgWwg3o
- razster 1y agoThat subreddit is fascinating and yet saddening at the same time. What I read will haunt me.
- greesil 1y agoI weep for humanity. This is satire right? On the flip side I guess you could charge these users more to keep 4o around because they're definitely going to pay.
- abxyz 1y agohttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-delusions-chatgpt.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/technology/ai-chatbots-de...
- abxyz 1y agoAI safety is focused on AGI but maybe it should be focused on how little “artificial intelligence” it takes to send people completely off the rails. We could barely handle social media, LLMs seem to be too much.
- MrGilbert 1y agoIt has ever been. People tend to see human-like behavior where there is non. Be it their pets, plants or… programs. The ELIZA-Effect.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA_effect
- _heimdall 1y agoIsn't the ELIZA-Effect specific to computer programs? Seeing human-like traits in pets or plants is a much trickier subject than seeing them in what is ultimate a machine developed entirely separately from the evolution of living organisms. We simply don't know what its like to be a plant or a pet. We can't say they definitely have human-like traits, but we similarly can't rule it out. Some of the uncertainty is in the fact that we do share ancestors at some point, and our biology's aren't entirely distinct. The same isn't true when comparing humans and computer programs.
- MrGilbert 1y agoYes, it is - I realize that my wording is not very good. That was what I meant - the ELIZA-Effect explicitly applies to machine <> human interaction.
- _heimdall 1y agoGot it, sorry I may have just misread your comment the first time!
- tsimionescu 1y agoThe same vague arguments apply to computers. We know computers can reason, and reasoning is an important part of our intelligence and consciousness. So even for ELIZA, or even more so for LLMs, we can't entirely rule out that they may have aspects of consciousness. You can also more or less apply the same thing to rocks, too, since we're all made up of the same elements ultimately - and maybe even empty space with its virtual particles is somewhat conscious. It's just a bad argument, regardless of where you apply it, not a complex insight.
- nostromo 1y agoWhat's even sadder is that so many of those posts and comments are clearly written by ChatGPT: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1mkobei/openai_just_pulled_the_biggest_baitandswitch_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1mkobei/openai_jus...
- delfinom 1y agoCounterpoint, these people are so deep in the hole with their AI usage that they are starting to copy the writing styles of AI. There's already indication that society is starting to pickup previously "less used" english words due to AI and use them frequently.
- opan 1y agoDo you have any examples? I've noticed something similar with memes and slang, they'll sometimes popularize an existing old word that wasn't too common before. This is my first time hearing AI might be doing it.
- marshall2x 1y agoApparently "delved" and "meticulous" are among the examples. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chatgpt-is-changing-the-words-we-use-in-conversation/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chatgpt-is-changi...
- solardev 1y ago
- Ancalagon 1y agoI don't know how else to describe this than sad and cringe. At least people obsessed with owning multiple cats were giving their affection to something that theoretically can love you back.
- foxglacier 1y agoYou think that's bad, see this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/Petloss/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Petloss/ Just because AI is different doesn't mean it's "sad and cringe". You sound like how people viewed online friendships in the 90's. It's OK. Real friends die or change and people have to cope with that. People imagine their dead friends are still somehow around (heaven, ghost, etc.) when they're really not. It's not all that different.
- hn_throwaway_99 1y agoThat entire AI boyfriend subreddit feels like some sort of insane asylum dystopia to me. It's not just people cosplaying or writing fanfic. It's people saying they got engaged to their AI boyfriends ("OMG, I can't believe I'm calling him my fiance now!"), complete with physical rings. Artificial intimacy to the nth degree. I'm assuming a lot of those posts are just creative writing exercises but in the past 15 years or so my thoughts of "people can't really be that crazy" when I read batshit stuff online have consistently been proven incorrect.
- Sateeshm 1y ago[dead]
- thrown-0825 1y agoThis is the logical outcome of the parasocial relationships that have been bankrolling most social media personalities for over a decade. We have automated away the "influencer" and are left with just a mentally ill bank account to exploit.
- foxglacier 1y agoJust because it's strange and different doesn't mean it's insanity. I likened it to pets because of the grief but there's also religion. People are weird and even true two-way social relationships don't really make a lot of sense practically, other than to feed some primal emotional needs which pets, AI boyfriends, OF and gods all sort of do too. Perhaps some of these things are still helpful, despite being "inasnity" while others might be harmful. Maybe that's the distinction you're seeing, but it's not clear which is which.
- Tsarbomb 1y agoOh yikes, these people are ill and legitimately need help.
- hirvi74 1y agoI am not confident most, if any of them, are even real. If they are real, then what kind of help there could be for something like this? Perhaps, community? But sadly, we've basically all but destroyed those. Pills likely won't treat this, and I cannot imagine trying to convince someone to go to therapy for a worse and more expensive version of what ChatGPT already provides them. It's truly frightening stuff.
- thrown-0825 1y agoIts real, I know people like this.
- pxc 1y agoIt seems outrageous that a company whose purported mission is centered on AI safety is catering to a crowd whose use case is virtual boyfriend or pseudo-therapy. Maybe AI... shouldn't be convenient to use for such purposes.
- vova_hn 1y agoI refuse to believe that this whole subreddit is not satire or an elaborate prank.
- gonzo41 1y agoNo. Confront reality. there are some really cooked people out there.
- thrown-0825 1y agoI can confirm this, caught my father using ChatGPT as a therapist a few months ago. The chats were heartbreaking, from the logs you could really tell he was fully anthropomorphizing it and was visibly upset when I asked him about it.
- Rastonbury 1y agoThey don't even have to be "cooked", people generally are pretty similar which is why common scams works so well at a large scale. All AI has to be is mildly but not overly sycophantic and as a supporter/cheerleader to someone, or who affirms your beliefs. Most people like that quality in a partner or friend. I actually want to recognize OAI courage in deprecating 4 because of it sycophancy. Generally I don't think getting people addicted to flattery or model personalities is good Several times I've had people speak about interpersonal arguments and them having felt vindication when chatgpt takes their side, I cringe but it's not my place to tell them chatgpt is meant to be mostly agreeable.
- edoceo 1y agoLack of third-place to exist and make friends.
- sevensor 1y agoWhere do they all come from? Where do they all belong?
- neutralino1 1y agoYou win today.
- nobodyandproud 1y agoReddit
- latexr 1y agoYour parent commenter was making a Beatles reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Rigby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Rigby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EqMmGlTc_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EqMmGlTc_w
- ACCount36 1y ago[dead]
- SillyUsername 1y agoNo this isn't always the case. Perhaps if somebody were to shut down your favourite online shooter without warning you'd be upset, angry and passionate about it. Some people like myself fall into this same category, we know its a token generator under the hood, but the duality is it's also entertainment in the shape of something that acts like a close friend. We can see the distinction, evidently some people don't. This is no different to other hobbies some people may find odd or geeky - hobby horsing, ham radio, cosplay etc etc.
- MallocVoidstar 1y agoPeople were saying they'd kill themself if OpenAI didn't immediately undeprecate GPT-4o. I would not have this reaction to a game being shut down.
- __loam 1y agoI'm kind of in your side but there's definitely people out there who would self harm if they invested a lot of time in an mmo that got shut down
- rpcope1 1y agoI'm kind of surprised it got that bad for people, but I think it's a good sign that even if we're far from AGI or luxury fully automated space communism robots, the profound (negative) social impacts of these chat bots are already kind of inflicting on the world are real and very troublesome.
- latexr 1y ago> I think it's a good sign that (…) the profound (negative) social impacts of these chat bots are (…) real and very troublesome. I’m not sure I understand. You think the negative impacts are a good sign?
- rpcope1 1y agoI can't english good sometimes. I think the negative impacts get underestimated and ignored at our peril.