[runnerup]

Judging by most of the comments on Reddit (and about half the comments on select HN posts) … I think you’re right. Many adults lack the critical thinking and systems thinking necessary to use LLMs like ChatGPT effectively.

I’d like to think that the conversational style shortcuts their usual analytic skill, and maybe the next generation will more widely have a native understanding of the difference between LLM responses and human responses. But I think it’s more closely related to the phenomenon where many humans can’t currently choose whether total summations, year over year changes, or per capita representations are the most correct to use for a given situation.

There’s a lack of “validating input” in both online and IRL conversations which is a huge barrier to a person really analyzing information that they’re presented with. Many people are “below the median” in their ability to do this. But more importantly, I’m not sure which percentile cutoff currently is “good enough” at it.