The number of comments in the thread talking about 4o as if it were their best friend the shared all their secrets with is concerning. Lotta lonely folks out there
Perhaps if somebody were to shut down your favourite online shooter without warning you'd be upset, angry and passionate about it.
Some people like myself fall into this same category, we know its a token generator under the hood, but the duality is it's also entertainment in the shape of something that acts like a close friend.
We can see the distinction, evidently some people don't.
This is no different to other hobbies some people may find odd or geeky - hobby horsing, ham radio, cosplay etc etc.
I’m not sure I understand. You think the negative impacts are a good sign?
Perhaps you should read this and reconsider your assumptions.
Not every gaming subculture is healthy one. Plenty are pretty toxic.
> This is no different to other hobbies some people may find odd or geeky
It is quite different, and you yourself explained why: some people can’t see the distinction between ChatGPT being a token generator or an intelligent friend. People aren’t talking about the latter being “odd or geeky” but being dangerous and harmful.
They may stop making new episodes of a favoured tv show, or writing new books, but the old ones will not suddenly disappear.
How can you shut down cosplay? I guess you could pass a law banning ham radio or owning a horse, but that isn’t sudden in democratic countries, it takes months if not years.
Are you saying you're asocial?
https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/
They are very upset by the gpt5 model
these things are going to end up in android bots in 10 years too
(honestly, I wouldn't mind a super smart, friendly bot in my old age that knew all my quirks but was always helpful... I just would not have a full-on relationship with said entity!)
Seeing human-like traits in pets or plants is a much trickier subject than seeing them in what is ultimate a machine developed entirely separately from the evolution of living organisms.
We simply don't know what its like to be a plant or a pet. We can't say they definitely have human-like traits, but we similarly can't rule it out. Some of the uncertainty is in the fact that we do share ancestors at some point, and our biology's aren't entirely distinct. The same isn't true when comparing humans and computer programs.
You can also more or less apply the same thing to rocks, too, since we're all made up of the same elements ultimately - and maybe even empty space with its virtual particles is somewhat conscious. It's just a bad argument, regardless of where you apply it, not a complex insight.
Also worth noting is that alongside the very human propensity to anthropomorphize, there's the equally human, but opposite tendency to deny animals those higher capacities we pride ourselves with. Basically a narcissistic impulse to set ourselves apart from our cousins we'd like to believe we've left completely behind. Witness the recurring surprise when we find yet another proof that things are not by far that cut-and-dry.
I have the utmost confidence that things are only going to get worse from here. The world is becoming more isolated and individualistic as time progresses.
Unlike those celebrities, you can have a conversation with it.
Which makes it the ultimate parasocial product - the other kind of Turing completeness.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1mkobei/openai_jus...
There's already indication that society is starting to pickup previously "less used" english words due to AI and use them frequently.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chatgpt-is-changi...
You can immediately identify them based on writing style and the use of CAPITALIZATION mid sentence as a form of emphasis.
It reads more like angry grandpa chain mail with a "healthy" dose of dementia than what you would typically associate with terminally online micro cultures you see on reddit/tiktok/4chan.
Just because AI is different doesn't mean it's "sad and cringe". You sound like how people viewed online friendships in the 90's. It's OK. Real friends die or change and people have to cope with that. People imagine their dead friends are still somehow around (heaven, ghost, etc.) when they're really not. It's not all that different.
We have automated away the "influencer" and are left with just a mentally ill bank account to exploit.
It shouldn't be so much of an ask to at least give people language models to chat with.
If they are real, then what kind of help there could be for something like this? Perhaps, community? But sadly, we've basically all but destroyed those. Pills likely won't treat this, and I cannot imagine trying to convince someone to go to therapy for a worse and more expensive version of what ChatGPT already provides them.
It's truly frightening stuff.
Maybe AI... shouldn't be convenient to use for such purposes.
The chats were heartbreaking, from the logs you could really tell he was fully anthropomorphizing it and was visibly upset when I asked him about it.
All AI has to be is mildly but not overly sycophantic and as a supporter/cheerleader to someone, or who affirms your beliefs. Most people like that quality in a partner or friend. I actually want to recognize OAI courage in deprecating 4 because of it sycophancy. Generally I don't think getting people addicted to flattery or model personalities is good
Several times I've had people speak about interpersonal arguments and them having felt vindication when chatgpt takes their side, I cringe but it's not my place to tell them chatgpt is meant to be mostly agreeable.