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Comment by schmichael | Hacker News Reader

There are many religious questions people probably are scared to ask a human. Imagine any closeted gay or trans kid wanting to know if the way they feel is “wrong.” Just asking the question to your parents or a faith leader could raise suspicions and be dangerous.

So while I wish the world were one in which people didn’t have a reason to be scared to ask questions, that’s not the world we live in. Are LLMs an answer? I have no idea, but I understand the impulse to try.

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> Imagine any closeted gay or trans kid wanting to know if the way they feel is “wrong.” Just asking the question to your parents or a faith leader could raise suspicions and be dangerous.

Depends on the religion and the place. A Catholic could ask in the confessional with the seal of secrecy. Anyone could ask online anonymously. In most churches I know it would not be dangerous to ask questions, and you can do in confidence one way or another.

I really do not think LLMs are anything like the answer for people grappling with personal issues. You need someone supportive with empathy.

Also, who trusts an LLM to give them the right answer? Can an LLM guide someone gently to think things through? Can it refuse to give someone a black and white answer when they want a simple answer to a complex question?

I think an LLM is the dangerous option.

Different for people in very conservative cultures, of course.

> Just asking the question to your parents or a faith leader could raise suspicions and be dangerous.

So... they send it to the cloud, where it's stored forever, sold to whoever wants to pay and waiting for the moment the database will leak publicly.

Yeah... I hate to be a downer in this but neither humans nor faceless tech are good approaches to keep someone safe, especially when they are hated just for who they are by a major faction.

What kind of psychopath would trudge through a leak to see if their child ask a religious question to an LLM?

Or worse, who would track people with questions like this and try to "teach" or "purify" them. Even without violence this is vile, and yet I fully believe this happens just like some US states spending tax money trying to estimate constituent periods to see if they may have had an abortion.

The same ones who run spyware on their child's device to see if they visited any number of other websites. https://www.covenanteyes.com

The linked software only blocks 18+ content, and I think it's reasonable for parents to monitor if their child accesses that kind of content??

No, it blocks that by default, but the program offers additional filtering options, too.

It's an interesting approach but also a big contrast to the typical community style formula for religion / even just different and disconnected sort of evangelism where you have no idea what the result is...

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