[joe_mamba]

> I've been programming since I was 13

Congrats, you're in a small minority of people.

>What worries me is that I fear this is happening to way, way more people than those who actually bring it up, potentially yourself included, and you just haven't yet realized it because you haven't really thought about it.

People probably said the same thing about using pocket calculators when they started getting cheap and mainstream in the 1970s.

Do you still use your brain to calculate sales tax or the square root of pi just to keep your brain sharp on knowing calculus, or do you always use a calculator because it's a mainstream commodity that will never go away?

[ethin]

> People probably said the same thing about using pocket calculators when they started getting cheap and mainstream in the 1970s.

Except a pocket calculator is very different from an LLM. It isn't a tool you can go to and ask it literally anything under the sun and get an answer (even if incorrect). It's cold, logical and uninterested in your life or what happens. These LLMs are trained to be interested and empathetic. They are, IMO, way more like drugs than most other things.

[joe_mamba]

>It's cold, logical and uninterested in your life or what happens.

The entire universe is cold, logical and uninterested in your life or what happens to you. But that's exactly what I want from a machine that's supposed to be my personal slave. I don't want a lecture from it on current day political correctness and sensibilities, I just want it to do exactly what I ask it no matter how rude or machiavellian it may be. Whoever will deliver this type of unhinged obedient slave to the masses(most likely China), will win the AI race.

> These LLMs are trained to be interested and empathetic.

Luckily there's already like a dozen LLMs at this point, many free and open source, especially from China, and I and many others will just pick the one that isn't trained to be interested and empathetic, but the one that's my personal slave and does exactly what I want from it, because of the competition between them will allow this freedom of choice.

In 5-15 years when semiconductor shortages ease up and hardware advances a bit more, there's a chance offline open LLMs in your pocket will be as obliquus as pocket calculators were in the 80s.

>They are, IMO, way more like drugs than most other things.

So was music, TV, video games, porn, etc. when they became mainstream. We adapted and survived.

I'm more scared about the state of world peace, economy, CoL, jobs and housing market than of LLMs being addicted.

There's millions of people on the planet who are a couple of meals away from hunger and rioting and migrating to other countries, and a climate catastrophe or one more wars could destabilize the whole planet for good, than LLMs being addictive. If LLMs are your biggest concern, you're in a very privileged position.

[rrvsh]

> > I've been programming since I was 13

> Congrats, you're in a small minority of people.

Why did you respond to this? I fail to see how it relates to your point whatsoever.

[joe_mamba]

Why did he mention it? How does it relate to the topic? Why do you think people are not allowed to reply to it?

[ethin]

> Why did he mention it?

Because it's this thing us humans call context. Or background. There are a number of terms for it. I was providing that so the rest of my post would make a bit more sense.