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> Across studies, participants with higher trust in AI and lower need for cognition and fluid intelligence showed greater surrender to System 3 So the smart ge

> Across studies, participants with higher trust in AI and lower need for cognition and fluid intelligence showed greater surrender to System 3 So the smart get smarter and the dumb get dumber? Well, not exactly, but at least for now with AI "highly jagged", and unreliable, it pays to know enough to NOT trust it, and indeed be mentally capable enough that you don't need to surrender to it, and can spot the failures. I think the potential problems come later, when AI is more capable/reliable, and even the intelligentsia perhaps stop questioning it's output, and stop exercising/developing their own reasoning skills. Maybe AI accelerates us towards some version of "Idiocracy" where human intelligence is even less relevant to evolutionary success (i.e. having/supporting lots of kids) than it is today, and gets bred out of the human species? Maybe this is the inevitable trajectory: species gets smarter when they develop language and tool creation, then peak, and get dumber after having created tools that do the thinking for them? Pre-AI, a long time ago, I used to think/joke we might go in the other direction - evolve into a pulsating brain, eyes, genitalia and vestigial limbs, as mental work took over from physical, but maybe I got that reversed!

RodgerTheGreat 8mo ago
I think everyone who believes that they can personally resist the detrimental psychological effects of exposure to LLMs by "remaining aware" or "being careful", because they have cultivated an understanding of how language models work, is falling into precisely the same fallacy as people who think they can't be conned or that marketing doesn't work on them. Don't kid yourself. If you use this junk, it's making you dumber and damaging your critical thinking skills, full-stop. This is delegation of core competency. You may feel smarter, or that you're learning faster, of that you're more productive, but to people who aren't addicted to LLMs it sounds exactly like gamblers insisting they have a foolproof system for slots, or alcoholics insisting that a few beers make them a better driver. Nobody outside the bubble is impressed with the results.
- thesumofall 7mo ago
  I fully agree that it’s close to impossible to not eventually fall into the trap of overrelying on them. However, it’s also true that I was able to do things with them that I would never have done otherwise for a lack of time or skill (all sorts of small personal apps, tools, and scripts for my hobbies). Maybe it’s a bit similar to only reading the comment section in a newspaper instead of the news? They will introduce you to new perspectives but if you stop reading the underlying news you’ll harm your own critical thinking? So it’s maybe a bit more grey than black & white?
- paseante 7mo ago
  [dead]
- rdevilla 7mo ago
  > Don't kid yourself. If you use this junk, it's making you dumber and damaging your critical thinking skills, full-stop. This is delegation of core competency. This is a good way to frame the problem. Consider the offshoring (delegation) of American manufacturing to China, followed by the realization decades later that the US has forgotten how to actually make things and the subsequent frenzied attempt to remember. I expect the timelines and second-order (third-order...) effects to play out on a similar decadal scale - long after everybody has realized their profits and the western brain has atrophied into slop.
  - totierne2 7mo ago
    My mind is already going, old age. You only really try anything when you are already losing it. Especially if you had it once.
- SadErn 7mo ago
  [dead]
- Tade0 7mo ago
  > If you use this junk, it's making you dumber and damaging your critical thinking skills, full-stop. Arguably I've been using my critical thinking skills more now that I have a smooth talking, but ultimately not actually intelligent companion. Every time I put undue trust in it, I regret it, so I got used to veryfing what it outputs via documentation and sometimes even library code. That being said worst part of this mess is that my usual sources of knowledge like search engines or developer forums dried up, as everyone else is also using LLMs.
- MrScruff 7mo ago
  I think this is too broad. If, for example, I get Claude to set up a fine tuning pipeline for rf-detr and it one shots it for me, what have I lost? A learning opportunity to understand the details of how to go about this process, sure. But you could argue the same about relying on PyTorch. Ultimately we all have an overarching goal when engaged in these projects and the learning opportunity might be happening at an entirely different level than worrying about the nuts and bolts of how you build component A of your larger project.
eager_learner 7mo ago
Evolution is questionable science. i am not trying to be contrarian. it's not dogma nor it is established, scientifically proved theory. Proponents, usually when cornered, shrug and say: 'well, this is the best explanation we have so far'. That's not science. Best possible scenario is speculation by a group of people with mediocre thinking skills. Mentioning this here because just like your comment, this 'theory' is usually slid inside arguments to make it appear as established science or fact. Kinda like this AI debacle.
- HarHarVeryFunny 7mo ago
  The "theory" of evolution" stopped being a theory when DNA was discovered and it's role understood. Now it's just the inevitable fact of evolution.
  - eager_learner 7mo ago
    if that's true and evolutionists are so confident then why did my comment get downvoted so much? Knowledge from DNA disproved EVolution-- maybe you should read more. Here's one: 'Philosophical Scientists'-- David Foster, OUP
    - HarHarVeryFunny 7mo ago
      If someone wrote a book claiming to have a "mathematical proof" that "1 + 1 = 3", and put a picture of god on the cover, would you buy it and promote it?
      - guzfip 7mo ago
        I guarantee you an LLM has already fooled him in this manner lmao
        eager_learner 7mo ago
        i don't know how old you are, but this does not seem like a mature, thinking person's behavior.
yoyohello13 7mo ago
Maybe this is the solution to the Fermi paradox. Intelligent species make thinking machines, loose capacity for thinking in a few generations, then a emp wipes out the computers and everyone is too stupid to survive.
- Izkata 7mo ago
  1909 short story "The Machine Stops" (Minus the Fermi paradox part)

RodgerTheGreat 8mo ago

I think everyone who believes that they can personally resist the detrimental psychological effects of exposure to LLMs by "remaining aware" or "being careful", because they have cultivated an understanding of how language models work, is falling into precisely the same fallacy as people who think they can't be conned or that marketing doesn't work on them. Don't kid yourself. If you use this junk, it's making you dumber and damaging your critical thinking skills, full-stop. This is delegation of core competency. You may feel smarter, or that you're learning faster, of that you're more productive, but to people who aren't addicted to LLMs it sounds exactly like gamblers insisting they have a foolproof system for slots, or alcoholics insisting that a few beers make them a better driver. Nobody outside the bubble is impressed with the results.

thesumofall 7mo ago
I fully agree that it’s close to impossible to not eventually fall into the trap of overrelying on them. However, it’s also true that I was able to do things with them that I would never have done otherwise for a lack of time or skill (all sorts of small personal apps, tools, and scripts for my hobbies). Maybe it’s a bit similar to only reading the comment section in a newspaper instead of the news? They will introduce you to new perspectives but if you stop reading the underlying news you’ll harm your own critical thinking? So it’s maybe a bit more grey than black & white?
paseante 7mo ago
[dead]
rdevilla 7mo ago
> Don't kid yourself. If you use this junk, it's making you dumber and damaging your critical thinking skills, full-stop. This is delegation of core competency. This is a good way to frame the problem. Consider the offshoring (delegation) of American manufacturing to China, followed by the realization decades later that the US has forgotten how to actually make things and the subsequent frenzied attempt to remember. I expect the timelines and second-order (third-order...) effects to play out on a similar decadal scale - long after everybody has realized their profits and the western brain has atrophied into slop.
- totierne2 7mo ago
  My mind is already going, old age. You only really try anything when you are already losing it. Especially if you had it once.
SadErn 7mo ago
[dead]
Tade0 7mo ago
> If you use this junk, it's making you dumber and damaging your critical thinking skills, full-stop. Arguably I've been using my critical thinking skills more now that I have a smooth talking, but ultimately not actually intelligent companion. Every time I put undue trust in it, I regret it, so I got used to veryfing what it outputs via documentation and sometimes even library code. That being said worst part of this mess is that my usual sources of knowledge like search engines or developer forums dried up, as everyone else is also using LLMs.
MrScruff 7mo ago
I think this is too broad. If, for example, I get Claude to set up a fine tuning pipeline for rf-detr and it one shots it for me, what have I lost? A learning opportunity to understand the details of how to go about this process, sure. But you could argue the same about relying on PyTorch. Ultimately we all have an overarching goal when engaged in these projects and the learning opportunity might be happening at an entirely different level than worrying about the nuts and bolts of how you build component A of your larger project.

eager_learner 7mo ago

Evolution is questionable science. i am not trying to be contrarian. it's not dogma nor it is established, scientifically proved theory. Proponents, usually when cornered, shrug and say: 'well, this is the best explanation we have so far'. That's not science. Best possible scenario is speculation by a group of people with mediocre thinking skills. Mentioning this here because just like your comment, this 'theory' is usually slid inside arguments to make it appear as established science or fact. Kinda like this AI debacle.

HarHarVeryFunny 7mo ago
The "theory" of evolution" stopped being a theory when DNA was discovered and it's role understood. Now it's just the inevitable fact of evolution.
- eager_learner 7mo ago
  if that's true and evolutionists are so confident then why did my comment get downvoted so much? Knowledge from DNA disproved EVolution-- maybe you should read more. Here's one: 'Philosophical Scientists'-- David Foster, OUP
  - HarHarVeryFunny 7mo ago
    If someone wrote a book claiming to have a "mathematical proof" that "1 + 1 = 3", and put a picture of god on the cover, would you buy it and promote it?
    - guzfip 7mo ago
      I guarantee you an LLM has already fooled him in this manner lmao
      - eager_learner 7mo ago
        i don't know how old you are, but this does not seem like a mature, thinking person's behavior.

yoyohello13 7mo ago

Maybe this is the solution to the Fermi paradox. Intelligent species make thinking machines, loose capacity for thinking in a few generations, then a emp wipes out the computers and everyone is too stupid to survive.

Izkata 7mo ago
1909 short story "The Machine Stops" (Minus the Fermi paradox part)