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Comment by dcchambers | Hacker News Reader

Are people really going to keep using these AI tools if they start shoving ads down our throats?

Just by the nature of the product, the manipulation will be a lot more subtle, and likely more successful than traditional ads..

It's terrifying.

And yet somehow it's even worse.

Maybe something good comes out of the work to only push products that actually exist. /s

So far it's about as subtle as a slap to the face. If you set ChatGPT's personality to 'straight-shooting' it starts every answer with "blunt", "tell it like it is" or "unvarnished" and permeates that across the whole reply; by its very nature, it is unable to be subtle about anything.

That hasn't been true for a while IME. Did you select 'Robot' as the personality?

I have Default personality with the traits field set to straight-shooter ("Tell it like it is; don't sugar-coat responses.") I'll try the robot one, thanks.

Yeah, that's a recent addition, as far as I can tell. It became available in my account a few weeks ago. I currently use 'Robot' mode, call myself a 'Researcher', and use these custom instructions:

    Answer concisely when appropriate, more extensively 
    when necessary.  Avoid rhetorical flourishes, bonhomie, 
    and (above all) cliches.  Take a forward-thinking view. 
    OK to be mildly positive and encouraging but NEVER 
    sycophantic or cloying.  Above all, NEVER use the 
    phrase "You're absolutely right."  Rather than "Let me 
    know if..." style continuations, you may list a set 
    of prompts to explore further topics, but only when 
    clearly appropriate.

Pretty happy with the results so far. Very low BS factor (although it does ignore the last part sometimes.)

"I feel like something is missing in my life"

> Thinking...

> Have you ever had that energetic and refreshing feeling after a Baja Blast(TM)?

This is true, but it doesn't go far enough. Google could serve you ads, like LLMs will.

But LLMs can be used to astroturf internet spaces. Which means they allow everyone the ability to serve ads and manipulate. It's no longer just limited to the company providing the original service.

I think they'd inject ads during training (too). You and everyone cannot do that; Google can.

why would they inject ads during training?

Worked for every tech company so far.

Check out https://deep.ai lots of people who don't have $20/month to spend on a chatbot are happy to have ad impressions subsidize what model they get to use

Do you use any free web search tool?

I actually switched from Google to Kagi a few years ago. Whenever possible I avoid products with advertisements.

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