Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 548 posts

Re: What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality

#61

Post by throwaway2037 »

josh-sematic wrote: post #23
ArcHound wrote: post #3

One of the more disturbing things I read this year was the my boyfriend is AI subreddit. I genuinely can't fathom what is going on there. Seems so wrong, yet no one there seems to care. I worry about the damage caused by these things on distressed people. What can be done?

I hadn’t heard of that until today. Wild, it seems some people report genuinely feeling deeply in love with the personas they’ve crafted for their chatbots. It seems like an incredibly precarious position to be in to have a deep relationship where you have to perpetually pay a 3rd party company to keep it going, and the company may destroy your “partner” or change their personality at a whim. Very “Black Mirror”.

You are implying here that the financial connection/dependence is the problem. How is this any different than (hetero) men who lose their jobs (or suffer significant financial losses) while in a long term relationship? Their chances of divorce / break-up skyrocket in these cases. To be clear, I'm not here to make women look bad. The inverse/reverse is women getting a long-term illness that requires significant care. The man is many times more likely to leave the relationship due to a sharp fall in (emotional and physical) intimacy.

Final hot take: The AI boyfriend is a trillion dollar product waiting to happen. Many women can be happy without physical intimacy, only getting emotional intimacy from a chatbot.

Re: What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality

#62

Post by throwaway2037 »

belval wrote: post #10
ArcHound wrote: post #3

One of the more disturbing things I read this year was the my boyfriend is AI subreddit. I genuinely can't fathom what is going on there. Seems so wrong, yet no one there seems to care. I worry about the damage caused by these things on distressed people. What can be done?

> I worry about the damage caused by these things on distressed people. What can be done? Why? We are gregarious animals, we need social connections. ChatGPT has guardrails that keep this mostly safe and helps with the loneliness epidemic. It's not like people doing this are likely thriving socially in the first place, better with ChatGPT than on some forum à la 4chan that will radicalize them. I feel like this will…

This is an interesting point. Personally, I am neutral on it. I'm not sure why it has received so many downvotes.

You raise a good point about a forum with real people that can radicalise someone. I would offer a dark alternative: It is only a matter of time when forums are essentially replaced by an AI-generated product that is finely tuned to each participant. Something a bit like Ready Player One.

Your last paragraph: What is the meaning of "Alpha and Beta"? I only know it from the context of Red Pill dating advice.

Re: What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality

#63

Post by ares623 »

venturecruelty wrote: post #44

"Sure, this software induces psychosis and uses a trillion gallons of water and all the electricity of Europe, and also it gives wrong answers most of the time, but if you ignore all that, it's really quite amazing."

"I opened 10 PRs in the time it took to type out this comment. Worth it."

Re: What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality

#64

Post by codebje »

belval wrote: post #10
ArcHound wrote: post #3

One of the more disturbing things I read this year was the my boyfriend is AI subreddit. I genuinely can't fathom what is going on there. Seems so wrong, yet no one there seems to care. I worry about the damage caused by these things on distressed people. What can be done?

> I worry about the damage caused by these things on distressed people. What can be done? Why? We are gregarious animals, we need social connections. ChatGPT has guardrails that keep this mostly safe and helps with the loneliness epidemic. It's not like people doing this are likely thriving socially in the first place, better with ChatGPT than on some forum à la 4chan that will radicalize them. I feel like this will…

Using ChatGPT to numb social isolation is akin to using alcohol to numb anxiety.

ChatGPT isn't a social connection: LLMs don't connect with you. There is no relationship growth, just an echo chamber with one occupant.

Maybe it's a little healthier for society overall if people become withdrawn to the point of suicide by spiralling deeper into loneliness with an AI chat instead of being radicalised to mass murder by forum bots and propagandists, but those are not the only two options out there.

Join a club. It doesn't really matter what it's for, so long as you like the general gist of it (and, you know, it's not "plot terrorism"). Sit in the corner and do the club thing, and social connections will form whether you want them to or not. Be a choir nerd, be a bonsai nut, do macrame, do crossfit, find a niche thing you like that you can do in a group setting, and loneliness will fade.

Numbing it will just make it hurt worse when the feeling returns, and it'll seem like the only answer is more numbing.

Re: What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality

#65

Post by amryl »

ArcHound wrote: post #3

One of the more disturbing things I read this year was the my boyfriend is AI subreddit. I genuinely can't fathom what is going on there. Seems so wrong, yet no one there seems to care. I worry about the damage caused by these things on distressed people. What can be done?

There is also the subreddit LLMPhysics where some of the posts are disturbing. Many of the people there seem to fall into crackpot rabbit holes and lost touch with reality

Re: What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality

#66

Post by GuinansEyebrows »

nostrademons wrote: post #37
quitit wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of reasons why having a chatbot partner is a bad idea (especially for young people), but here's just a few: - The sycophantic and unchallenging behaviours of chatbots leaves a person unconditioned for human interactions. Real relationships have friction, from this we develop important interpersonal skills such as setting boundaries, settling disagreements, building compromise, standing up for oneself…

These are only problems if you assume the person later wants to come back to having human relationships. If you assume AI relationships are the new normal and the future looks kinda like The Matrix, with each person having their own constructed version of reality while their life-force is bled dry by some superintelligent machine, then it is all working as designed.

ugh. speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Re: What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality

#67

Post by jordanb »

quitit wrote: post #21
ArcHound wrote: post #3

One of the more disturbing things I read this year was the my boyfriend is AI subreddit. I genuinely can't fathom what is going on there. Seems so wrong, yet no one there seems to care. I worry about the damage caused by these things on distressed people. What can be done?

There are plenty of reasons why having a chatbot partner is a bad idea (especially for young people), but here's just a few: - The sycophantic and unchallenging behaviours of chatbots leaves a person unconditioned for human interactions. Real relationships have friction, from this we develop important interpersonal skills such as setting boundaries, settling disagreements, building compromise, standing up for oneself…

> The sycophantic and unchallenging behaviours of chatbots leaves a person unconditioned for human interactions

I saw a take that the AI chatbots have basically given us all the experience of being a billionaire: being coddled by sycophants, but without the billions to protect us from the consequences of the behaviors that encourages.

Re: What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality

#68

Post by kylehotchkiss »

ArcHound wrote: post #3

One of the more disturbing things I read this year was the my boyfriend is AI subreddit. I genuinely can't fathom what is going on there. Seems so wrong, yet no one there seems to care. I worry about the damage caused by these things on distressed people. What can be done?

Seems like the consequence of people really struggling to find relationships more than ChatGPT's fault. Nobody seems to care about the real-life consequences of Match Group's algorithms.

At this point, probably local governments being required to provide socialization opportunities for their communities because businesses and churches aren't really up for the task.

Re: What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality

#69

Post by kbelder »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #61
josh-sematic wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn’t heard of that until today. Wild, it seems some people report genuinely feeling deeply in love with the personas they’ve crafted for their chatbots. It seems like an incredibly precarious position to be in to have a deep relationship where you have to perpetually pay a 3rd party company to keep it going, and the company may destroy your “partner” or change their personality at a whim. Very “Black Mirror”.

You are implying here that the financial connection/dependence is the problem. How is this any different than (hetero) men who lose their jobs (or suffer significant financial losses) while in a long term relationship? Their chances of divorce / break-up skyrocket in these cases. To be clear, I'm not here to make women look bad. The inverse/reverse is women getting a long-term illness that requires significant care.…

Funny. Artificial Boyfriends were a software problem, while Artificial Girlfriends are more of a hardware issue.
Post reply on HN