> there isn't that much of an upside in being an early adopter.
Other than, y'know, using the new tools. As a programmer heavy forum, we focus a lot on LLMs' (lack of) correctness. There's more than a little bit of annoyance when things are wrong, like being asked to grab the red blanket and then getting into an argument over it being orange instead of what was important, someone needed the blanket because they were cold.
Most of the non-tech people who use ChatGPT that I've talked to absolutely love it because they don't feel it judges them for asking stupid questions and they have conversations about absolutely everything in their lives with it down to which outfit to wear to the party. There are wrong answers to that question as well, but they're far more subjective and just having another opinion in the room is invaluable. It's just a computer and won't get hurt if you totally ignore it's recommendations, and even better, it won't gloat (unless you ask it to) if you tell it later that it was right and you were wrong.
Some people have found upsides for themselves in their lives, even at this nascent stage. No one's forcing you to use one, but your job isn't going to be taken by AI, it's going to be taken by someone else who can outperform you that's using AI.
Clearly said, yet the general sentiment awakens in me a feeling more gothic horror than bright futurism. I am stuck with wonder and worry at the question of how rapidly this stuff will infiltrate into the global tech supply chain, and the eventual consequences of misguided trust.
To my eye, too much current AI and related tech are just exaggerated versions of magic 8-balls, Ouija boards, horoscopes, or Weizenbaum's ELIZA. The fundamental problem is people personifying these toys and letting their guard down. Human instincts take over and people effectively social engineer themselves, putting trust in plausible fictions.
It's not just LLMs though. It's been a long time coming, the way modern tech platforms have been exaggerating their capability with smoke and mirrors UX tricks, where a gleaming facade promises more reality and truth than it actually delivers. Individual users and user populations are left to soak up the errors and omissions and convince themselves everything is working as it should.
Someday, maybe, anthropologists will look back on us and recognize something like cargo cults. When we kept going through the motions of Search and Retrieval even though real information was no longer coming in for a landing.
Other than, y'know, using the new tools. As a programmer heavy forum, we focus a lot on LLMs' (lack of) correctness. There's more than a little bit of annoyance when things are wrong, like being asked to grab the red blanket and then getting into an argument over it being orange instead of what was important, someone needed the blanket because they were cold.
Most of the non-tech people who use ChatGPT that I've talked to absolutely love it because they don't feel it judges them for asking stupid questions and they have conversations about absolutely everything in their lives with it down to which outfit to wear to the party. There are wrong answers to that question as well, but they're far more subjective and just having another opinion in the room is invaluable. It's just a computer and won't get hurt if you totally ignore it's recommendations, and even better, it won't gloat (unless you ask it to) if you tell it later that it was right and you were wrong.
Some people have found upsides for themselves in their lives, even at this nascent stage. No one's forcing you to use one, but your job isn't going to be taken by AI, it's going to be taken by someone else who can outperform you that's using AI.