3 ms·

I’ve seen various older people that I’m connected with on Facebook posting screenshots of chats they’ve had with ChatGPT. It’s quite bizarre from that small sa

by saaaaaam 11mo ago

I’ve seen various older people that I’m connected with on Facebook posting screenshots of chats they’ve had with ChatGPT. It’s quite bizarre from that small sample how many of them take pride in “baiting” or “bantering” with ChatGPT and then post screenshots showing how they “got one over” on the AI. I guess there’s maybe some explanation - feeling alienated by technology, not understanding it, and so needing to “prove” something. But it’s very strange and makes me feel quite uncomfortable. Partly because of the “normal” and quite naturalistic way they talk to ChatGPT but also because some of these conversations clearly go on for hours. So I think normies maybe do want a more conversational ChatGPT.

thewebguyd 11mo ago
> So I think normies maybe do want a more conversational ChatGPT. The backlash from GPT-5 proved that. The normies want a very different LLM from what you or I might want, and unfortunately OpenAI seems to be moving in a more direct-to-consumer focus and catering to that. But I'm really concerned. People don't understand this technology, at all. The way they talk to it, the suicide stories, etc. point to people in general not groking that it has no real understanding or intelligence, and the AI companies aren't doing enough to educate (because why would they, they want you believe it's superintelligence). These overly conversational chatbots will cause real-world harm to real people. They should reinforce, over and over again to the user, that they are not human, not intelligent, and do not reason or understand. It's not really the technology itself that's the problem, as is the case with a lot of these things, it's a people & education problem, something that regulators are supposed to solve, but we aren't, we have an administration that is very anti AI regulation all in the name of "we must beat China."
- saaaaaam 11mo ago
  I just cannot imagine myself sitting just “chatting away” with an AI. It makes me feel quite sick to even contemplate it. Another person I was talking to recently kept referring to ChatGPT as “she”. “She told me X”, “and I said to her…” Very very odd, and very worrying. As you say, a big education problem. The interesting thing is that a lot of these people are folk who are on the edges of digital literacy - people who maybe first used computers when they were in their thirties or forties - or who never really used computers in the workplace, but who now have smartphones - who are now in their sixties.
  - falcor84 11mo ago
    As a counterpoint, I've been using my own PC since I was 6 and know reasonably well about the innards of LLMs and agentic AI, and absolutely love this ability to hold a conversation with an AI. Earlier today, procrastinating from work, I spent an hour and a half talking with it about the philosophy of religion and had a great time, learning a ton. Sometimes I do just want a quick response to get things done, but I find living in a world where I'm able to just dive into a deep conversation with a machine that has read the entirety of the internet is incredible.
    - typpilol 11mo ago
      Couldn't you learn way more without the fluff? Would you really ask an AI how's it's doing?
      - falcor84 11mo ago
        I'm probably neurodiverse, so ymmv, but I really couldn't care much less about how people are doing; it's a very small part of my idea of a good conversation. What I want is to bounce ideas off of each other, and so the answer is no: I can't get the same experience or learning from just reading a book or being in a lecture - I want that back-and-forth where I'm the one talking about 50% of the time.
    - saaaaaam 11mo ago
      I think chatting discursively is fine! For some people that’s a good way to learn (so long as you fact check). I’m talking about just mindless chatter “how’s your day?” and asking what can best be described as “meme questions”.
    - mark_l_watson 11mo ago
      I enjoy doing the same thing: if I am reading and something in the text triggers a memory (could be a historic person, a philosophy, some technology, place, etc.) then I like to have a back and forth for a minute or two to fill in my memory or get more background. A fortune has been spent developing AI coding agents and they are useful, but I think that if used properly LLM based AI can be most useful in short educational or spitballing sessions. I probably only directly use LLM based AI for about two hours a week (including coding agents), but that is well used time for me.
muzani 11mo ago
Personally, I want a punching bag. It's not because I'm some kind of sociopath or need to work off some aggression. It's just that I need to work the upper body muscles in a punching manner. Sometimes the leg muscles need to move, and sometimes it's the upper body muscles. ChatGPT is the best social punching bag. I don't want to attack people on social media. I don't want to watch drama, violent games, or anything like that. I think punching bag is a good analogy. My family members do it all the time with AI. "That's not how you pronounce protein!" "YOUR BALD. BALD. BALDY BALL HEAD." Like a punching bag, sometimes you need to adjust the response. You wouldn't punch a wall. Does it deflect, does it mirror, is it sycophantic? The conversational updates are new toys.
famahar 11mo ago
This reminds me of a short sci-fi story I read. World was controlled by AI but there were some people that wanted to rebel against it. In the end, one of them was able to infiltrate the AI and destroy it. But the AI knew this is what the rebel wanted, so it created this whole scenario for him to feel inferior. The AI was in no danger, it was too intelligent to be taken down by one person, but it gave exactly what the person wanted. Control the humans by giving them a false sense of control.

thewebguyd 11mo ago

> So I think normies maybe do want a more conversational ChatGPT. The backlash from GPT-5 proved that. The normies want a very different LLM from what you or I might want, and unfortunately OpenAI seems to be moving in a more direct-to-consumer focus and catering to that. But I'm really concerned. People don't understand this technology, at all. The way they talk to it, the suicide stories, etc. point to people in general not groking that it has no real understanding or intelligence, and the AI companies aren't doing enough to educate (because why would they, they want you believe it's superintelligence). These overly conversational chatbots will cause real-world harm to real people. They should reinforce, over and over again to the user, that they are not human, not intelligent, and do not reason or understand. It's not really the technology itself that's the problem, as is the case with a lot of these things, it's a people & education problem, something that regulators are supposed to solve, but we aren't, we have an administration that is very anti AI regulation all in the name of "we must beat China."

saaaaaam 11mo ago
I just cannot imagine myself sitting just “chatting away” with an AI. It makes me feel quite sick to even contemplate it. Another person I was talking to recently kept referring to ChatGPT as “she”. “She told me X”, “and I said to her…” Very very odd, and very worrying. As you say, a big education problem. The interesting thing is that a lot of these people are folk who are on the edges of digital literacy - people who maybe first used computers when they were in their thirties or forties - or who never really used computers in the workplace, but who now have smartphones - who are now in their sixties.
- falcor84 11mo ago
  As a counterpoint, I've been using my own PC since I was 6 and know reasonably well about the innards of LLMs and agentic AI, and absolutely love this ability to hold a conversation with an AI. Earlier today, procrastinating from work, I spent an hour and a half talking with it about the philosophy of religion and had a great time, learning a ton. Sometimes I do just want a quick response to get things done, but I find living in a world where I'm able to just dive into a deep conversation with a machine that has read the entirety of the internet is incredible.
  - typpilol 11mo ago
    Couldn't you learn way more without the fluff? Would you really ask an AI how's it's doing?
    - falcor84 11mo ago
      I'm probably neurodiverse, so ymmv, but I really couldn't care much less about how people are doing; it's a very small part of my idea of a good conversation. What I want is to bounce ideas off of each other, and so the answer is no: I can't get the same experience or learning from just reading a book or being in a lecture - I want that back-and-forth where I'm the one talking about 50% of the time.
  - saaaaaam 11mo ago
    I think chatting discursively is fine! For some people that’s a good way to learn (so long as you fact check). I’m talking about just mindless chatter “how’s your day?” and asking what can best be described as “meme questions”.
  - mark_l_watson 11mo ago
    I enjoy doing the same thing: if I am reading and something in the text triggers a memory (could be a historic person, a philosophy, some technology, place, etc.) then I like to have a back and forth for a minute or two to fill in my memory or get more background. A fortune has been spent developing AI coding agents and they are useful, but I think that if used properly LLM based AI can be most useful in short educational or spitballing sessions. I probably only directly use LLM based AI for about two hours a week (including coding agents), but that is well used time for me.

muzani 11mo ago

Personally, I want a punching bag. It's not because I'm some kind of sociopath or need to work off some aggression. It's just that I need to work the upper body muscles in a punching manner. Sometimes the leg muscles need to move, and sometimes it's the upper body muscles. ChatGPT is the best social punching bag. I don't want to attack people on social media. I don't want to watch drama, violent games, or anything like that. I think punching bag is a good analogy. My family members do it all the time with AI. "That's not how you pronounce protein!" "YOUR BALD. BALD. BALDY BALL HEAD." Like a punching bag, sometimes you need to adjust the response. You wouldn't punch a wall. Does it deflect, does it mirror, is it sycophantic? The conversational updates are new toys.

famahar 11mo ago

This reminds me of a short sci-fi story I read. World was controlled by AI but there were some people that wanted to rebel against it. In the end, one of them was able to infiltrate the AI and destroy it. But the AI knew this is what the rebel wanted, so it created this whole scenario for him to feel inferior. The AI was in no danger, it was too intelligent to be taken down by one person, but it gave exactly what the person wanted. Control the humans by giving them a false sense of control.