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by teej 50 days ago
ChatGPT has a billion users so surely not all of the public hates it
6 comments

I use LLMs and I think they should be nuked from orbit. [Speaking figuratively, NSA.]

Helpful, sure. Would humanity be better off without generative AI? Definitely.

> I think they should be nuked from orbit

This kind of hyperbloic stance amongst the broad public is sad concerning

It should definitely be concerning to the makers of genAI!

Like I was telling someone else, what we've made here is the ultimate double-edged sword. Use it right and there's great glory. Use it wrong and you're a lifeless, empty husk. In this case, though, people get the far greater dopamine hit from using it wrong.

Algorithmic social media is like this and we already see people rotting out on the infinite scroll. And genAI makes social media look like 70s weed. The question is: on the whole, which side of that double-edged blade is going to be doing the slicing?

Maybe you should consider that they have good reasons to feel that way? That the "broad public" isn't necessarily wrong, stupid, and ignorant on every single topic?
I feel like this can be explained in part by “I like using it for myself, but I hate when others use it.”

When you use ChatGPT for yourself, you may have a sense that what you see is made up; when someone else that you trust uses it and pronounces the output in a way that suggests it is their own, you are left doing much more complex social math to figure out if your trust in this person or entity can hold. It gets exhausting, personally.

Usage != positive feelings.
why? I think both generally track. And I won't appreciate category errors such as calling it similar to smoking
>I think both generally track

Well, they simply don't. Everybody is forced to use it at my (>100k employee) company. They are tracking it - if you don't use it every single day, you get flagged. Tons of people hate this.

I use it constantly. Everybody I work with uses it constantly. We use it voluntarily (we are the software folks). And we would all give it up in a heartbeat if there was a way to destroy it.

I hear this sentiment constantly online and from friends at other large companies. You are not observing the general reality.

That's your experience, perhaps. I use it extensively in my work, and some in my personal life. I also think it's a net negative for society, will likely be highly destructive, and I would be happy to give up my use of it in exchange for its elimination.
Yep, anyone familiar with the Red Queen's race will recognize the importance of staying on top of AI advancements.

But that position is orthogonal to whether they like having to participate in the race to begin with.

How many of those billion users are using it because they keep being told to become proficient with AI or risk being left behind? I guess a decent enough slice, as the FUD campaign is getting more persistent everyday.
So, seven billion non-users.
That’s not really an accurate measure, assuming it’s true, but I for one have an openAI account but I never used it, like not once, and you can imagine a lot of people too are the same, rest maybe casually, others only on free tier.
> ChatGPT has a billion users

And their company's leadership is famous for compulsively lying. Pardon me if I suspect they might be arriving at that number using creative math.