Hacker News Reader

Comment by btown | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure about this specific situation, but from Google Docs to ChatGPT to Notion, there's a clear distinction between "make this a shareable link to only those who have the link" and "also make that shareable link searchable/discoverable by the public."

If Meta is turning that "searchability/discoverability" on by default when a share button is activated on an AI chat - or worse, if they're not even giving this industry-standard option - that would both explain the confusion, and be a terribly unexpected dark pattern. As the parent notes, the activation of a share icon is not informed consent.

View on HN

I did a test in the app, and it is pretty obvious you are posting the chat. You click share, then you are given a preview, and you have to hit post to actually post it publicly.

There’s a chance you’re overestimating a large percentage of the public.

Then should publishing always be disallowed on all platforms? I’m having trouble understanding how is what Facebook is doing any different from ChatGPT, and in general all web apps.

ChatGPT sharing is anonymous + you are also having to share the link itself, it doesn't randomly go to other people's feeds.

Oh that’s terrible, I didn’t get that part.

If a part of the population is dumb, the issue is that it’s dumb, not meta user interface.

I’m the first to bash on meta but there are things that they are not responsible for.

No, the issue is that Meta is weaponising that stupidity by breaching naive trust, and that's... stupid too. But for different reasons.

If you don't communicate at a level suitable for your audience, then you're not communicating. At best, you're just making noise. At worst, you're being a manipulative sack of shit. I do not believe Meta are in the noise-making business.

Life is tough, but it’s tougher if you’re stupid.

And then does it ask who you want to post it to, or to which app? Because that's a fairly common pattern when I "share" something on my phone.

Or does it just post it onto the public feed?

I don't think that is the case with ChatGPT: https://www.vice.com/en/article/chatgpt-users-report-being-a...

That situation was a bug, with a detailed post-mortem: https://openai.com/index/march-20-chatgpt-outage/

It is worth noting of course that per https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44185913 ChatGPT will now be required by law to retain a record of all chat history for courts and lawyers to review, but at least that data won't be made fully public.

Both of those are different from a willing and intentional dark pattern of making things publicly discoverable!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com