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Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

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351–360 of 548 posts

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#351

Humans spent thousands of years in a pre-truth world believing all sorts of crazy things, and many of those societies produced great things and had people living normal lives. It's only been the last 100 years or so that people's perception of reality has been anywhere close to accurate. And even then, most people believe plenty of things that are false. So basically people and civilization are going to muddle along…

There may be upsides to the ability to fake video and audio of someone (better CGI effects in films, for example). But in my experience when people refer to a deepfake they seem to mean that the fake has been distributed to confuse or deceive, for which I can't really see any probable upsides.

> So basically people and civilization are going to muddle along as they always have.

I agree with this, but consider the drawbacks to rampant disinformation and the proliferation of deepfakes (all this is IMO): it will make any video or audio deniable and unusable as evidence. Real images will be denounced as fakes. Fake images will catch on and possibly cause real damage. People will rapidly lose trust in most sources of news, entrenching established known quantities.

I feel like if we could reasonably put a stop to this we should. I don't think we can in general, though.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#352

Counter point: sure they are. Humans are highly adaptable and like other changes to information availability in the past they will adapt. This is what societal norms and cultural memes are for. “Don’t believe everything you hear” “Don’t believe what you see on TV” “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” These are all ways that the human species uses memes and cultural norms to teach ourselves how not to f…

It is estimated that between 50% and 70% of folks have no inner monologue.

How is that an issue?

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#353

Counter point: sure they are. Humans are highly adaptable and like other changes to information availability in the past they will adapt. This is what societal norms and cultural memes are for. “Don’t believe everything you hear” “Don’t believe what you see on TV” “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” These are all ways that the human species uses memes and cultural norms to teach ourselves how not to f…

It is estimated that between 50% and 70% of folks have no inner monologue.

That seems insane to me. I'm always chattering away up there, I can't imagine it otherwise.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#354
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen people on /r/singularity argue how LLMs are a better friend than actual friends or therapists because they are always available, non-judgemental and "listen better". EDIT: Here, for example: https://i.redd.it/7qxb1ohvhada1.png

Depending on the individual, they may not be wrong. If you're raised in an environment with an overdensity of narcissists having something that you can bounce questions and seek answers from that isn't going to use that information against you in the future can be a relief. (well, ok, its possible in the sense your chat logs can get stolen)

This is why you self-host and run locally. Even if they aren't stolen, do you really deeply trust Microsoft, Google, et al. to not misuse private information you've provided them with?

Their entire business models either heavily incorporate or revolve around exploiting your personal information for their benefit.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#355
post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was never going to pay for therapy, this gave me some insight and actually made me interested in therapy. ChatGPT could never be as bad as most human therapists, at least if it tells lies they're believable and it won't try to insult, belittle, or infantalize you. Medical usage is perhaps the single most interesting use of ChatGPT to me, the problem will be solving the liability issue should it get something wron…

> Why burden the healthcare system when you have a simple infection and all you need is a round of Amoxicillin? Human: "I have a runny nose, congestion, and a cough. Can I have some antibiotics so I can feel better?" AI: "It sounds like you have a common cold. Unfortunately, antibiotics won't help; there's no known cure. Luckily, it should clear up in a few days." Human: "Ok. What are some common illnesses that do ne…

I have one better.

>Have UTI

>Go to lab and pee in a cup

>Put lab results in ChatGPT

Should be objective.

Oh gosh Physicians are going to ban ChatGPT for medical, we need local LLMs ASAP.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It works out just because the places I can walk to for groceries are incredibly overpriced and the restaurants obviously don't source their food there. I typically don't buy my groceries from the gas station despite them having a half gallon of milk for $4 and it being 3 minutes walking away. I also don't use gas station numbers to determine if something is cheaper or more expensive.

Not sure if you're being facetious or just don't understand the reality of living in NYC... I can probably walk to a dozen different big grocery stores in 15m and they're ALL more expensive than the cheap fast food in the same area. Not including the smaller expensive bodegas where you can pick up stuff 24/7 every block (kinda like the equivalent of a gas station). A half gallon of milk is $4 at any of the big stores…

Shoot me a cross street, I'll go visit it and take some prices.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a hilariously naive take. We, as humans, are well beyond being mentally ready for the internet and social media alone. Most of the key communication of the 20th Century was based on a tradition of duty and service in reporting and, generally, leadership. The Natzis of the 40s died not because the idea was 'wrong' (which it was) but because bad leadership and greed caused extinction. Before Poland, Europe was…

How is that any different form the past several thousand years of civilization? Hitler wasn't the first or only genocidal dictator. He wasn't alone in the 20th century either. Colonization and the slave trade were worse, albeit spread over several centuries. But empires waging war, conquering, enslaving, eradicating other groups and manipulating citizens has been going on for a long, long time. Plato wrote to counter…

How is it any different? Are you serious? For the overwhelming majority of our time on this planet communications were limited to word of mouth over geographically limited areas. Now it is trivial for any form of bullshit to spread worldwide in minutes. The stakes have changed.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#358
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it's also real https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WSKKolgL2U https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replika

There's also Forever Voices, which offers those who have formed unhealthy parasocial relationships with real-life streamers/influencers the opportunity to talk to an AI version of them for $1 per minute. FV started out making novelty chatbots of people like Trump and Steve Jobs, but they seem to have made a hard pivot to exploiting desperately lonely people after realising how much more lucrative it could be. https:/…

This is incredibly sickening. This is women teaming up with a technology company to extract money from vulnerable, mentally unwell people suffering from some combination of soul-crushing loneliness and delusional thinking. Even if some customers are aware that they're engaged in delusional thinking, this is still nauseatingly exploitative of a comparatively lower socioeconomic class, one that may be suffering from mental illness.

I see very little difference between this and those infomercials that sell wildly overpriced mass-produced crap to the elderly suffering from cognitive decline.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#359

Counter point: sure they are. Humans are highly adaptable and like other changes to information availability in the past they will adapt. This is what societal norms and cultural memes are for. “Don’t believe everything you hear” “Don’t believe what you see on TV” “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” These are all ways that the human species uses memes and cultural norms to teach ourselves how not to f…

It is estimated that between 50% and 70% of folks have no inner monologue.

Inner monologue refers to the experience of perceiving one's thoughts as auditory. People who do not have an inner monologue are still capable of thinking.

Re: Humans aren’t mentally ready for an AI-saturated ‘post-truth world’

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is estimated that between 50% and 70% of folks have no inner monologue.

That seems insane to me. I'm always chattering away up there, I can't imagine it otherwise.

Wow. I had no idea that was a thing. I thought that’s just something they do in movies. But I don’t have a mind’s eye either (aphantasia). So I guess that’s on brand for me.

That doesn’t mean I can’t “talk to myself” in a way or think about stuff. I just have no auditory sensation whatsoever. It’s just abstract/immaterial reasoning. I’d wager if I did an FMRI the audio part would not light up but the speech part would.

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