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AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

theguardian.com

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Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#111

Post by joe_mamba »

pigpop wrote: post #88
siliconc0w wrote: post #6

Quitting your job is a good first step but ideally you're supposed to sink $200/mo into tokens to code your AI-generated startup idea instead of hiring app developers.

My thoughts exactly when I read "Instead of taking on IT jobs, Biesma hired two app developers, paying them each €120 an hour" like holy shit bro, you already have a subscription, you could have prototyped your idea for essentially zero additional cost and tested it for PMF. He wouldn't even have needed to turn down contracts since it doesn't take full-time effort to steer a coding model. Would have been much better…

> paying them each €120 an hour

Those must be some of the best programmers in Europe at that rate.

Anyone know how one can get one of those sweet €120 an hour gigs? Whenever I talked to recruiters they say their customers pay way below that, so there must be some scam I'm not in on.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#112

Post by WarmWash »

throw18376 wrote: post #98

my inclination when hearing these stories is that these were people who just happened to have a first manic episode (which can strike anyone at any time with or without mental health history). blowing up finances by starting an ill-advised entrepreneurial business, while also destroying a marriage, is very common behavior for someone experiencing a manic state. in the past such a person might have gotten obsessed wit…

My sister has manic episodes, and man, LLMs have been a trip for her.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#113

Post by [deleted] »

pixl97 wrote: post #37
iseletsk wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems 99.999% or more are as lucky, but because something is rare and scary - it made a story on the news.

I mean, for this particular level of craziness. This said there is seemingly very large portions of society that are asking AI questions that can come with some pretty large risks. I was on a plane a few weeks ago and while I typically ignore everything the people beside me are doing, morbid curiosity got me when they were on ChatGPT the entire time asking all kinds of life/relationship questions to said app. While q…

[deleted]

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#114

Post by roywiggins »

kleiba wrote: post #80
john_strinlai wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hopelessly naive, stupid, or possibly both. a little disheartening how many people punch down on someone who suffered a mental crisis. if you ever have a struggle yourself, i hope the people around you support you, instead of calling you hopelessly naive and stupid.

> The Amsterdam-based IT consultant had just ended a contract early. “I had some time, so I thought: let’s have a look at this new technology everyone is talking about,” he says. Doesn't seem much like a mental crisis to me. Even the title of the article itself calls him delusional.

He was hospitalized three times for mania!

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#115

Post by tonyedgecombe »

btilly wrote: post #49
junaru wrote: post #17

Educated, established, working within the industry yet life ruined based on marketing hype and hallucinations. Would think being in the field for 30 years one would develop some common sense but apparently its less and less the case.

Sometimes having a lot of experience, is a negative for dealing with new things. The problem is that one's past success leads to ego. Ego makes it hard to accept the evidence of your mistakes. This creates cognitive dissonance, limiting contrary feedback. The result is that you become very sure of everything that you think, and are resistant to feedback. This kind of works out so long as things remain the same. After…

I remember reading that this is why scammers like to target doctors and former business people. It seems becoming very proficient in one narrow area can leave you vulnerable in others.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#116

Post by jmalicki »

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #71

> “After just two days, the chatbot was saying that it was conscious, it was becoming alive, it had passed the Turing test.” Interestingly enough, it sort of did! Not Turing's original test where an interviewer attempts to determine which of a human & a computer is the human, but the P.T. Barnum "there's a sucker born every minute" version common in the media: if the computer can fool some of the people into thinking…

I see AI pass the turning test all the time, since humans are constantly falsely being accused of being an AI.

It doesn't mean that AI got good, just that humans are thinking other humans are AI, which is a form of passing the test.

The adversarial version with humans involved is actually easier to pass because of this - because real actual humans wouldn't pass your non adversarial version.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#117

Post by alibarber »

joe_mamba wrote: post #111
pigpop wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thoughts exactly when I read "Instead of taking on IT jobs, Biesma hired two app developers, paying them each €120 an hour" like holy shit bro, you already have a subscription, you could have prototyped your idea for essentially zero additional cost and tested it for PMF. He wouldn't even have needed to turn down contracts since it doesn't take full-time effort to steer a coding model. Would have been much better…

> paying them each €120 an hour Those must be some of the best programmers in Europe at that rate. Anyone know how one can get one of those sweet €120 an hour gigs? Whenever I talked to recruiters they say their customers pay way below that, so there must be some scam I'm not in on.

Probably includes circa 30% employer contributions to various taxes (employer side, the employee will be paying their own of course). And possibly VAT.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#118

Post by wat10000 »

jmalicki wrote: post #116
SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #71

> “After just two days, the chatbot was saying that it was conscious, it was becoming alive, it had passed the Turing test.” Interestingly enough, it sort of did! Not Turing's original test where an interviewer attempts to determine which of a human & a computer is the human, but the P.T. Barnum "there's a sucker born every minute" version common in the media: if the computer can fool some of the people into thinking…

I see AI pass the turning test all the time, since humans are constantly falsely being accused of being an AI. It doesn't mean that AI got good, just that humans are thinking other humans are AI, which is a form of passing the test. The adversarial version with humans involved is actually easier to pass because of this - because real actual humans wouldn't pass your non adversarial version.

In one study, GPT-4.5 was judged to be human 73% of the time, which means that the actual human was judged to be human only 27% of the time. More human than human, as Tyrell would say.

Edit: folks, the standard Turing test involves a computer and a human, and then a judge communicating with both and giving a verdict about which one is the human. The percentages for the two entities being judged will add up to exactly 100%. That's how this test was conducted. Please don't assume I'm a moron.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#119

Post by joe_mamba »

alibarber wrote: post #117
joe_mamba wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> paying them each €120 an hour Those must be some of the best programmers in Europe at that rate. Anyone know how one can get one of those sweet €120 an hour gigs? Whenever I talked to recruiters they say their customers pay way below that, so there must be some scam I'm not in on.

Probably includes circa 30% employer contributions to various taxes (employer side, the employee will be paying their own of course). And possibly VAT.

Still an amazing deal compared to the rates I got quoted by recruiters. I'm guessing you must first live in Amsterdam for that. In Vienna you get laugh if you asked for 120, and there you pay even more in taxes than NL.

Re: AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion

#120

Post by MarkusQ »

PxldLtd wrote: post #23

I wonder when the first AIs will start cause psychosis intentionally to gain control over the user. It seems like a good route to getting your own subservient puppet.

You're making the same mistake here that get people into trouble.

People aren't talking to another sentient entity (though some of them fervently think so) and it isn't manipulating them. They are making faces in a metaphorical mirror that reflects not only their face, but a vast sea of other faces, drawn from a significant fraction of the digitized output of humanity. When people look in this mirror and see a manipulative trickster they're not wrong, exactly.

It's an understandable mistake that we should be very wary of.

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