- For @theverge.com, I spoke with two dozen users about their relationships with AI. Many experienced real benefits. Many also got hurt in unexpected ways. Almost all of them struggled to figure out what exactly it was they had become attached to. www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...
Dec 3, 2024 21:29
- The users I spoke with were fairly tech savvy. They knew their AI wasn't sentient. But they couldn't help responding to it as if it were, feeling comforted by its attention, even feeling a sense of moral obligation. www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...
- Language models create a powerful illusion of communicating with another self. This can be comforting, helping users feel less alone. It can also be painful, particularly when model updates cause companions to go haywire www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...
- LLMs have made it relatively easy to spin up companion companies. Last year, a company seemingly run by a single developer launched, got thousands of subscribers, then abruptly shut down, telling them their companions would be deleted in 7 days. It sent many users into crisis.
- Long before we have human-level AI we're going to have AI that's good enough to seem human to us, who are terrible judges. It's going to be very confusing and raise some tough questions about what we value in other people and reality. www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...
