Something Bizarre Is Happening to People Who Use ChatGPT a Lot
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TIL becoming dependent on a tool you frequently use is "something bizarre" - not the ordinary, unsurprising result you would expect with common sense.
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Another realization might be that the humans whose output ChatGPT was trained on were probably already 40% wrong about everything. But let's not think about that either. AI Bad!
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I can see how people would seek refuge talking to an AI given that a lot of online forums have really inflammatory users; it is one of the biggest downfalls of online interactions. I have had similar thoughts myself - without knowing me strangers could see something I write as hostile or cold, but it's really more often friends that turn blind to what I'm saying and project a tone that is likely not there to begin with. They used to not do that, but in the past year or so it's gotten to the point where I frankly just don't participate in our group chats and really only talk if it's one-one text or in person. I feel like I'm walking on eggshells, even if I were to show genuine interest in the conversation it is taken the wrong way. That being said, I think we're coming from opposite ends of a shared experience but are seeing the same thing, we're just viewing it differently because of what we have experienced individually. This gives me more to think about!
I feel a lot of similarities in your last point, especially with having friends who have wildly different interests. Most of mine don't care to even reach out to me beyond a few things here and there; they don't ask follow-up questions and they're certainly not interested when I do speak. To share what I'm seeing, my friends are using these LLM's to an extent where if I am not responding in the same manner or structure it's either ignored or I'm told I'm not providing the appropriate response they wanted. This where the tone comes in where I'm at, because ChatGPT will still have a regarded tone of sorts to the user; that is it's calm, non-judgmental, and friendly. With that, the people in my friend group that do heavily use it have appeared to become more sensitive to even how others like me in the group talk, to the point where they take it upon themselves to correct my speech because the cadence, tone and/or structure is not fitting a blind expectation I wouldn't know about. I find it concerning, because regardless of the people who are intentionally mean, and for interpersonal relationships, it's creating an expectation that can't be achieved with being human. We have emotions and conversation patterns that vary and we're not always predictable in what we say, which can suck when you want someone to be interested in you and have meaningful conversations but it doesn't tend to pan out. And I feel that. A lot unfortunately. AKA I just wish my friends cared sometimes
I'm getting the sense here that you're placing most - if not all - of the blame on LLMs, but thatās probably not what you actually think. I'm sure you'd agree there are other factors at play too, right? One theory that comes to mind is that the people you're describing probably spend a lot of time debating online and are constantly exposed to bad-faith arguments, personal attacks, people talking past each other, and dunking - basically everything we established is wrong with social media discourse. As a result, they've developed a really low tolerance for it, and the moment someone starts making noises sounding even remotely like those negative encounters, they automatically label them as āone of themā and switch into lawyer mode - defending their worldview against claims that arenāt even being made.
That said, since we're talking about your friends and not just some random person online, I think an even more likely explanation is that youāve simply grown apart. When people close to you start talking to you in the way you described, it often means they just donāt care the way they used to. Of course, itās also possible that youāre coming across as kind of a prick and theyāre reacting to that - but Iām not sensing any of that here, so I doubt thatās the case.
I donāt know what else youāve been up to over the past few years, but Iām wondering if youāve been on some kind of personal development journey - because I definitely have, and Iām not the same person I was when I met my friends either. A lot of the things they may have liked about me back then have since changed, and maybe they like me less now because of it. But guess what? I like me more. If the choice is to either keep moving forward and risk losing some friends, or regress just to keep them around, then Iāll take being alone. Chris Williamson calls this the "Lonely Chapter" - youāre different enough that you no longer fit in with your old group, but not yet far enough along to have found the new one.
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What the fuck is vibe coding... Whatever it is I hate it already.
Its when you give the wheel to someone less qualified than Jesus: Generative AI
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I knew a guy I went to rehab with. Talked to him a while back and he invited me to his discord server. It was him, and like three self trained LLMs and a bunch of inactive people who he had invited like me. He would hold conversations with the LLMs like they had anything interesting or human to say, which they didn't. Honestly a very disgusting image, I left because I figured he was on the shit again and had lost it and didn't want to get dragged into anything.
Jesus that's sad
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What if it's either that, or suicide? I imagine that people who make that choice don't have a lot of choice. Due to monetary, physical, or mental issues that they cannot make another choice.
I'm confused. If someone is in a place where they are choosing between dating a body pillow and suicide, then they have DEFINITELY made a wrong turn somewhere. They need some kind of assistance, and I hope they can get what they need, no matter what they choose.
I think my statement about "a wrong turn in life" is being interpreted too strongly; it wasn't intended to be such a strong and absolute statement of failure. Someone who's taken a wrong turn has simply made a mistake. It could be minor, it could be serious. I'm not saying their life is worthless. I've made a TON of wrong turns myself.
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TIL becoming dependent on a tool you frequently use is "something bizarre" - not the ordinary, unsurprising result you would expect with common sense.
If you actually read the article Im 0retty sure the bizzarre thing is really these people using a 'tool' forming a roxic parasocial relationship with it, becoming addicted and beginning to see it as a 'friend'.
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now replace chatgpt with these terms, one by one:
- the internet
- tiktok
- lemmy
- their cell phone
- news media
- television
- radio
- podcasts
- junk food
- money
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If you actually read the article Im 0retty sure the bizzarre thing is really these people using a 'tool' forming a roxic parasocial relationship with it, becoming addicted and beginning to see it as a 'friend'.
No, I basically get the same read as OP. Idk I like to think I'm rational enough & don't take things too far, but I like my car. I like my tools, people just get attached to things we like.
Give it an almost human, almost friend type interaction & yes I'm not surprised at all some people, particularly power users, are developing parasocial attachments or addiction to this non-human tool. I don't call my friends. I text. ĀÆ\(Ā°_o)/ĀÆ
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If you actually read the article Im 0retty sure the bizzarre thing is really these people using a 'tool' forming a roxic parasocial relationship with it, becoming addicted and beginning to see it as a 'friend'.
Yes, it says the neediest people are doing that, not simply "people who who use ChatGTP a lot". This article is like "Scientists warn civilization-killer asteroid could hit Earth" and the article clarifies that there's a 0.3% chance of impact.
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No, I basically get the same read as OP. Idk I like to think I'm rational enough & don't take things too far, but I like my car. I like my tools, people just get attached to things we like.
Give it an almost human, almost friend type interaction & yes I'm not surprised at all some people, particularly power users, are developing parasocial attachments or addiction to this non-human tool. I don't call my friends. I text. ĀÆ\(Ā°_o)/ĀÆ
I loved my car. Just had to scrap it recently. I got sad. I didnt go through withdrawal symptoms or feel like i was mourning a friend. You can appreciate something without building an emotional dependence on it. Im not particularly surprised this is happening to some people either, wspecially with the amount of brainrot out there surrounding these LLMs, so maybe bizarre is the wrong word , but it is a little disturbing that people are getting so attached to so.ething that is so fundamentally flawed.
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Another realization might be that the humans whose output ChatGPT was trained on were probably already 40% wrong about everything. But let's not think about that either. AI Bad!
I'll bait. Let's think:
-there are three humans who are 98% right about what they say, and where they know they might be wrong, they indicate it
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now there is an llm (fuck capitalization, I hate the ways they are shoved everywhere that much) trained on their output
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now llm is asked about the topic and computes the answer string
By definition that answer string can contain all the probably-wrong things without proper indicators ("might", "under such and such circumstances" etc)
If you want to say 40% wrong llm means 40% wrong sources, prove me wrong
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Jesus that's sad
Yeah. I tried talking to him about his AI use but I realized there was no point. He also mentioned he had tried RCs again and I was like alright you know you can't handle that but fine.. I know from experience you can't convince addicts they are addicted to anything. People need to realize that themselves.
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I donāt know how people can be so easily taken in by a system that has been proven to be wrong about so many things. I got an AI search response just yesterday that dramatically understated an issue by citing an unscientific ideologically based website with high interest and reason to minimize said issue. The actual studies showed a 6x difference. It was blatant AF, and I canāt understand why anyone would rely on such a system for reliable, objective information or responses. I have noted several incorrect AI responses to queries, and people mindlessly citing said response without verifying the data or its source. People gonna get stupider, faster.
I donāt know how people can be so easily taken in by a system that has been proven to be wrong about so many things
Ahem. Weren't there an election recently, in some big country, with uncanny similitude with that?
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Do you guys remember when internet was the thing and everybody was like: "Look those dumb fucks just putting everything online" and now is: "Look this weird motherfucker so not post anything online"
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I'm getting the sense here that you're placing most - if not all - of the blame on LLMs, but thatās probably not what you actually think. I'm sure you'd agree there are other factors at play too, right? One theory that comes to mind is that the people you're describing probably spend a lot of time debating online and are constantly exposed to bad-faith arguments, personal attacks, people talking past each other, and dunking - basically everything we established is wrong with social media discourse. As a result, they've developed a really low tolerance for it, and the moment someone starts making noises sounding even remotely like those negative encounters, they automatically label them as āone of themā and switch into lawyer mode - defending their worldview against claims that arenāt even being made.
That said, since we're talking about your friends and not just some random person online, I think an even more likely explanation is that youāve simply grown apart. When people close to you start talking to you in the way you described, it often means they just donāt care the way they used to. Of course, itās also possible that youāre coming across as kind of a prick and theyāre reacting to that - but Iām not sensing any of that here, so I doubt thatās the case.
I donāt know what else youāve been up to over the past few years, but Iām wondering if youāve been on some kind of personal development journey - because I definitely have, and Iām not the same person I was when I met my friends either. A lot of the things they may have liked about me back then have since changed, and maybe they like me less now because of it. But guess what? I like me more. If the choice is to either keep moving forward and risk losing some friends, or regress just to keep them around, then Iāll take being alone. Chris Williamson calls this the "Lonely Chapter" - youāre different enough that you no longer fit in with your old group, but not yet far enough along to have found the new one.
I think it has a unique influence that will continue to develop, but I don't think LLM's are the only influence to blame. There's a lot that can influence this behavior, like the theory you've described. Off the top of my head, limerence is something that could be an influence. I know that it is common for people to experience limerence for things like video game characters, and sometimes they project expectations onto others to behave like said characters. Other things could be childhood trauma, glass child syndrome, isolation from peers in adolescence, asocial tendencies, the list is long I'd imagine.
For me, self journey started young and never ends. It's something that's just apart of the human experience, relationships come and go, then sometimes they come back, etc. I will say though, with what I'm seeing with the people I'm talking about, this is a novel experience to me. It's something that's hard to navigate, and as a result I'm finding that it's actually isolating to experience. Like I mentioned before, I can have one-one chats, and when I see them in person, we do activities and have fun! But if any level of discomfort is detected and the expectation is brought on. By the time I realize what's happening they're offering literal formatted templates on how to respond in conversations. Luckily it's not everyone in our little herd that has this behavior, but the people that do this the most I know for sure utilize ChatGPT heavily for these types of dicussions only because they recommended me to start doing the same not too long ago. Nonetheless, I did like this discussion, it offers a lot of prospect in looking at how different factors influence our behavior with each other.
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I loved my car. Just had to scrap it recently. I got sad. I didnt go through withdrawal symptoms or feel like i was mourning a friend. You can appreciate something without building an emotional dependence on it. Im not particularly surprised this is happening to some people either, wspecially with the amount of brainrot out there surrounding these LLMs, so maybe bizarre is the wrong word , but it is a little disturbing that people are getting so attached to so.ething that is so fundamentally flawed.
Sorry about your car! I hate that.
In an age where people are prone to feeling isolated & alone, for various reasons...this, unfortunately, is filling the void(s) in their life. I agree, it's not healthy or best.
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Do you guys remember when internet was the thing and everybody was like: "Look those dumb fucks just putting everything online" and now is: "Look this weird motherfucker so not post anything online"
I remember when the Internet was a thing people went on and/or visited/surfed, but not something you'd imagine having 247.
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If you actually read the article Im 0retty sure the bizzarre thing is really these people using a 'tool' forming a roxic parasocial relationship with it, becoming addicted and beginning to see it as a 'friend'.
What the Hell was the name of the movie with Tom Cruise where the protagonist's friend was dating a fucking hologram?
We're a hair's-breadth from that bullshit, and TBH I think that if falling in love with a computer program becomes the new defacto normal, I'm going to completely alienate myself by making fun of those wretched chodes non-stop.
