people tend to become dependent upon AI chatbots when their personal lives are lacking. In other words, the neediest people are developing the deepest parasocial relationship with AI
Preying on the vulnerable is a feature, not a bug.
I kind of see it more as a sign of utter desperation on the human’s part. They lack connection with others at such a high degree that anything similar can serve as a replacement. Kind of reminiscent of Harlow’s experiment with baby monkeys. The videos are interesting from that study but make me feel pretty bad about what we do to nature. Anywho, there you have it.
And it’s beyond obvious in the way LLMs are conditioned, especially if you’re used them long enough to notice trends. Where early on their responses were straight to the point (inaccurate as hell, yes, but that’s not what we’re talking about in this case) today instead they are meandering and full of straight engagement bait - programmed to feign some level of curiosity and ask stupid and needless follow-up questions to “keep the conversation going.” I suspect this is just a way to increase token usage to further exploit and drain the whales who tend to pay for these kinds of services, personally.
There is no shortage of ethical quandaries brought into the world with the rise of LLMs, but in my opinion the locked-down nature of these systems is one of the most problematic; if LLMs are going to be the commonality it seems the tech sector is insistent on making happen, then we really need to push back on these companies being able to control and guide them in their own monetary interests.
Preying on the vulnerable is a feature, not a bug.
I kind of see it more as a sign of utter desperation on the human’s part. They lack connection with others at such a high degree that anything similar can serve as a replacement. Kind of reminiscent of Harlow’s experiment with baby monkeys. The videos are interesting from that study but make me feel pretty bad about what we do to nature. Anywho, there you have it.
And the amount of connections and friends the average person has has been in free fall for decades…
I dunno. I connected with more people on reddit and Twitter than irl tbh.
Different connection but real and valid nonetheless.
I’m thinking places like r/stopdrinking, petioles, bipolar, shits been therapy for me tbh.
At least you’re not using chatgpt to figure out the best way to talk to people, like my brother in finance tech does now.
And it’s beyond obvious in the way LLMs are conditioned, especially if you’re used them long enough to notice trends. Where early on their responses were straight to the point (inaccurate as hell, yes, but that’s not what we’re talking about in this case) today instead they are meandering and full of straight engagement bait - programmed to feign some level of curiosity and ask stupid and needless follow-up questions to “keep the conversation going.” I suspect this is just a way to increase token usage to further exploit and drain the whales who tend to pay for these kinds of services, personally.
There is no shortage of ethical quandaries brought into the world with the rise of LLMs, but in my opinion the locked-down nature of these systems is one of the most problematic; if LLMs are going to be the commonality it seems the tech sector is insistent on making happen, then we really need to push back on these companies being able to control and guide them in their own monetary interests.