The best conversations I still have are with real people, but those are rare. With ChatGPT, I reliably have good conversations, whereas with people, it’s hit or miss, usually miss.

What AI does better:

  • It’s willing to discuss esoteric topics. Most humans prefer to talk about people and events.
  • It’s not driven by emotions or personal bias.
  • It doesn’t make mean, snide, sarcastic, ad hominem, or strawman responses.
  • It understands and responds to my actual view, even from a vague description, whereas humans often misunderstand me and argue against views I don’t hold.
  • It tells me when I’m wrong but without being a jerk about it.

Another noteworthy point is that I’m very likely on the autistic spectrum, and my mind works differently than the average person’s, which probably explains, in part, why I struggle to maintain interest with human-to-human interactions.

  • msage@programming.dev
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    7 hours ago

    Dude, you are sealioning so hard in this thread alone, it’s almost hilarious.

    No wonder you like the bot. Since you can’t debate any opinion honestly, just accuse everyone of being mean to you.

    Good luck with that.

  • cynar@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    As a fellow aspie, be careful. Chat bots are the equivalent of empty calorie junk food, or masturbation. They forfill a biological itch but don’t produce the intended follow-on effects. In smaller doses, this is fine, good even. The problem comes when you overuse.

    E.g. Junk food leave you short of vitamins etc. You tend to over eat, to try and compensate, and so gain weight.

    As humans, we have a drive to socialise. When we chat with other humans, we get to know them, and also for bonds. These bonds are critical in life. The goal is 3 fold, mutual understanding, mutual investment, and mutual trust. The urge to talk to people is intended to assist with this.

    LLMs offer none of these. They can be incredibly useful, but often only as a training aid. A LLM can’t offer you a couch to sleep on, if your house floods. It can’t put in a good word to get you a job. It can’t invite you to social event, or wingman you on finding a date.

    LLMs are socialising on easy mode. Just like masturbation is starting a family on easy mode. Have fun with it, but don’t let it displace real relationships.

  • Bobmighty@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Why are you here talking about it then? You even say you don’t have interest in human to human contact. Are you trying to talk to the bots on Lemmy?

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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      7 hours ago

      You even say you don’t have interest in human to human contact.

      I’m relatively sure I have not infact said that.

      • Bobmighty@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Ok. My point still stands. Chat gpt is a fake conversation where one side is an unfeeling unintelligent thing programmed to fake human seeming conversation. It’s trained on an insane amount of stolen human interaction. You are saying you prefer a Chinese room to a person. That’s not autism. It’s just anti social. At least own up to that.

        Have fun playing your conversation game. It eats up a crazy amount of power to do that so I hope it’s really, truly worth it to your life.

        • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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          5 hours ago

          For all I know I could be talking with an LLM right now. I don’t really see what’s the difference wether I’m talking to a supercomputer or an angry teenager. Online conversations are rather meaningless to begin with.

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    13 hours ago

    I think when you have “Contrarian” in your name it be worth thinking a bit more on this, and maybe noting why you like the chatbots and considering how you might apply that to your own statements to make your human on human interactions more pleasant themselves.

    Or not, don’t listen to me, I beef with internet strangers all the time.

    • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      It is to laugh. My handle gets me in trouble like this sometimes, but it’s actually a reminder to myself to, at least usually, resist the temptation.

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    1 day ago

    It carries the emotions and personal biases of the source material It was trained on.

    It sounds like you are training yourself to be a poor communicator, abandoning any effort to become more understandable to actual humans.

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      20 hours ago

      It carries the emotions and personal biases of the source material It was trained on.

      So are all my friends… Never stopped me from having fun conversations with them, even ones I disagree with.

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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      It sounds like you are training yourself to be a poor communicator, abandoning any effort to become more understandable to actual humans.

      Based on what? That seems like a rather unwarranted assumption to me. My English vocabulary and grammar have never been better, and since I can now also talk to it instead of typing, my spoken English is much clearer and more confident as well.

      • JamesStallion@sh.itjust.works
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        You say yourself that you use the vaguest descriptions when talking to the bot and that it fills in the blanks for you. This is not a good way to practice speaking with human beings.

        The fact that you assumed I was talking about grammar is indicative of the problem. You clearly dislike others assuming you are talking about something you are not talking about, yet you do it yourself. That’s because misunderstandings are normal and learning to deal with them is an essential part of good communication.

        • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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          You say yourself that you use the vaguest descriptions when talking to the bot and that it fills in the blanks for you

          Not quite what I said.

          It understands and responds to my actual view, even from a vague description

          Yes, because I’m not a native english speaker and I’m way better at writing english than speaking it. If you transcribe my speech into text it’s a horrible word salad and it still understand perfectly what I mean and I don’t need to repeat myself endlessly and correct it on what I actually said. Contrast this with my discussions online, in writing, where I may spend 40 minutes spelling out an idea as clearly as I can and I’m still being misunderstood by a huge number of people. Like right now.

          • JamesStallion@sh.itjust.works
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            Regardless of why the bot is able to adapt to vagueness (or other communication problems), the fact that it can discourages you from overcoming those problems.

            Someone diagreeing withyou, or attempting to show you some other thing you might not have thought of or seen for yourself, is not always a misunderstanding. You need to entertain the possibility that sometimes you are wrong, unaware of something, or simply misunderstanding the other person yourself.

            • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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              1 day ago

              This very discussion we’re having right now perfectly illustrates my point.

              The issue isn’t about disagreeing with my point. I welcome all disagreement. The problem is that they’re not disagreeing with what I actually said but with what they think I said. Maybe it’s personal bias, and they just want to paint me as the devil in their mind, or perhaps my explanation wasn’t clear enough. Either way, this issue only happens with people. ChatGPT understands the point I’m making perfectly almost every time, regardless of how detailed my explanation is. When I have discussions with ChatGPT, I can actually talk about the topic I’m interested in, rather than constantly having to say, “That’s not what I said/meant,” and then try to explain my point even clearer, only to be misunderstood again.

              • Zos_Kia@lemmynsfw.com
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                12 hours ago

                This thread is hilarious to us all. I’m sorry you have to go through this but it is, indeed, a great illustration of your point. The other commenter is making very large assumptions and the goalpost is moving so fast it might actually be on wheels. Oh and a new slippery slope just dropped : using ChatGPT will now worsen your communication skills (for unspecified reasons, according to bad communicators wholly unfamiliar with the matter at hand).

                I think you missed an opportunity. It would have been much simpler to post “Does anyone else think AI kinda bad ?” and raked in all the accolades and upvotes.

                • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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                  11 hours ago

                  Well I’m saying non-critical things about gen-AI on Lemmy of all places. I can’t say I expected any other kind of response. Thus unpopular opinion.

              • JamesStallion@sh.itjust.works
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                1 day ago

                “Someone disagreeing with you, or attempting to show you something you might not know or have seen”

                So this is another example of how you are doing the same things you avoid communicating with humans over. You have selected one part of my statement to misunderstand and selectively ignored the point.

                We absolutely are talking about what you wanted to talk about. Your first statement to me was asking what I based my assessment that you were training yourself to be a poor communicator on. Since then we have stuck to that topic, but you haven’t really addressed the central point that a machine that adapts to things that hinder communication with humans will inevitably train you not to correct or address those hindrances.

                This isn’t me disagreeing with you, it is me pointing out something you might not have considered. However you have framed this whole discussion as a case of you being misunderstood. That really isn’t the case.

                • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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                  You say yourself that you use the vaguest descriptions when talking to the bot and that it fills in the blanks for you.

                  I never said that. You make it sound like I’m not even trying when I’m talking with chatGPT which is not true. What I did say was that even if I use the vaguest descriptions when talking to chatGPT it still understands me where as with people misunderstand my even the most carefully and thoughtfully written responses. Basically it does a good job at understanding me even when I’m not even trying where as with some people it doesn’t matter how hard I try, they still wont.

                  I’m even willing to accept that this may be on me aswell. Maybe I’m just really bad at explaining my views and that’s why people keep misunderstanding me. However, chatGPT doesn’t. Not even despite my shitty explanations.

  • bigboig@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    21 hours ago

    I’m pretty sure chat bots are biased to make polite conversation. Most real people won’t spend the energy in a conversation to be more honest than they think you are.

    Can either get better at sounding honest or talk with less honest people.

  • coffee_with_cream@sh.itjust.works
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    21 hours ago

    This comment thread is great. @op good luck; people on Lemmy have little interest in real discussion. If you say anything pro-ML or anything less than far-left, you’ll get screamed at.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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      13 hours ago

      It took me a minute to figure out that you meant Machine Learning and not Marxist-Leninist. Probably want to be more specific on that particular shortcut at a minimum.

    • Harvey656@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Someone once told me it’s specifically my fault USA is right leaning, then people dogpiled on me agreeing with them.

    • merthyr1831@lemmy.ml
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      18 hours ago

      What are those “less than far left” opinions then? Because I’m sure if anyone were to prod you more than a little you’d be very happy to clarify what opinions make you such a pariah to Lemmy users.

      If you miss being coddled to like Reddit, then go back there.

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    9 hours ago

    This just sounds like platonic masturbation.

    EDIT: I started this thread tongue and cheek, but also genuine, but based on the OP’s comment replies here I’m fairly convinced that they are either: a) talking to chatGPT so much that they’ve lost the ability to hold a coherent conversation, or b) just using a LLM to respond everywhere in the comments. They’ve consistently failed to address tone and context in every comment. It reads like they don’t actually understand any of the things people here are saying, just stringing together some words and syntax that sounds like language, but totally lacks any actual meaning or understanding.

          • Wolf314159@startrek.website
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            I wasn’t trying to be mean. I have no shame about masturbation. I wasn’t being sarcastic or snide. I meant what I said genuinely and without prejudice. You’re using a machine because it’s easy, self fulfilling, and you don’t have to worry about the complexities of interacting with another person. How is that any different than using a vibrator? If you feel shame about this or using a sex toy by yourself, maybe you should reflect on those feelings and analyze if they are helping you or hurting you.

            • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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              Sorry about misinterpreting your tone then. In that case I simply just don’t understand what you’re trying to say there or why what I said made you feel that way.

                • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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                  I don’t understand how that’s what you got out of my post or how this relates to it. Responding feels like defending a view I don’t hold.

    • bamfic@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      This should be top comment. Yes people can be assholes and AI is polite and people can snd should learn not to be assholes… But why is it being polite? Out of empathy or kindness? No, it is the plaything of billionaires and wants your money and everyone elses too

    • Wiz@midwest.social
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      20 hours ago

      Thank you! I’m a professional part-time psychic entertainer and magician, and this was a delightful read. It’s true, and A.I. takes advantage of people the same way as a psychic entertainer. Both tell you what j you want to hear. The difference is, the psychic is usually deemed entertainment, and the computer is often deemed an authoritative source.

      It’s a bit scary to think that I’m a few decades my job-hobby may be outsourced to A.I. However, I’ve always thought (predicted!) that live entertainment will become more valuable as the A.I. revolution occurs.

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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      I’ve read this text. It’s a good piece, but unrelated to what OP is talking about.

      The text boils down to “people who believe that LLMs are smart do so for the same reasons as people who believe that mentalists can read minds do.” OP is not saying anything remotely close to that; instead, they’re saying that LLMs lead to pleasing and insightful conversations in their experience.

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        they’re saying that LLMs lead to pleasing and insightful conversations in their experience.

        Yeah, as would eliza (at a much lower cost).

        It’s what they’re designed to do.

        But the point is that calling them conversations is a long stretch.

        You’re just talking to yourself. You’re enjoying the conversation because the LLM is simply saying what you want to hear.

        There’s no conversation whatsoever going on there.

        • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
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          Yeah, as would eliza (at a much lower cost).

          Neither Eliza nor LLMs are “insightful”, but that doesn’t stop them from outputting utterances that a human being would subjectively interpret as such. And the later is considerably better at that.

          But the point is that calling them conversations is a long stretch. // You’re just talking to yourself. You’re enjoying the conversation because the LLM is simply saying what you want to hear. // There’s no conversation whatsoever going on there.

          Then your point boils down to an “ackshyually”, on the same level as “When you play chess against Stockfish you aren’t actually «playing chess» as a 2P game, you’re just playing against yourself.”


          This shite doesn’t need to be smart to be interesting to use and fulfil some [not all] social needs. Specially in the case of autists (as OP mentioned to be likely in the spectrum); I’m not an autist myself but I lived with them for long enough to know how the cookie crumbles for them, opening your mouth is like saying “please put words here, so you can screech at me afterwards”.

        • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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          You’re gatekeeping what counts as a conversation now?

          I can take this even further. I can have better conversations literally with myself inside my own head than with some people online.

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      Idk, I think that article is a bit hyperbolic and self serving for validation of the writers and the readers to pander their own intelligence above others. The lengthy exposition on cold reading is plain filler material for the topic and yet it goes on. ChatGPT and LLM have been a thing for a while now and I doubt anyone technically literate believes it to be AI as in an actual individual entity. It’s an interactive question-response machine that summarises what it knows about your query in flowing language or even formatted as lists or tables or whatever by your request. Yes, it has deep deep flaws with holes and hallucinations, but for reasonable expectations it is brilliant. Just like a computer or the software for it, it can do what it can do. Nobody expects a word processor or image editor or musical notation software to do more than what it can do. Even the world’s most regarded encyclopedia have limits, both printed and interactive media alike. So I don’t see why people feel the need to keep in patting themselves on the back of how clever they are by pointing out that LLM are in fact not a real world mystical oracle that knows everything. Maybe because they themselves were the once thinking it was and now they are overcompensating to save face.

  • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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    As long as you’re still engaging with real humans regularly, I think that it’s good to learn from ChatGPT. It gets most general knowledge things right. I wouldn’t depend on it for anything too technical, and certainly not for medical advice. It is very hit or miss for things like drug interactions.

    If you’re enjoying the experience, it’s not much different than watching a show or playing a game, IMHO. Just don’t become dependent on it for all social interaction.

    As for the jerks on here, I always recommend aggressive use of the block button. Don’t waste time and energy on them. There’s a lot of kind and decent people here, filter your feed for them.

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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      As for the jerks on here, I always recommend aggressive use of the block button. Don’t waste time and energy on them. There’s a lot of kind and decent people here, filter your feed for them.

      My blocklist is around 500 users long and grows every day. I do it for the pettiest reasons but it does, infact work. When I make a thread such as this one, I occasionally log out to see the replies I’ve gotten from blocked users and more often than not (but not always) they’re the kind of messages I’d block them again for. Not to create and echo-chamber but to weed out the assholes.

  • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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    Have you ever tried inputting sentences that you’ve said to humans to see if the chatbot understand your point better? That might be an interesting experiment if you haven’t tried it already. If you have, do you have an example of how it did better than the human?

    I’m kinda amazed that it can understand your accent better than humans too. This implies Chatbots could be a great tool for people trying to perfect their 2nd language.

    • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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      A couple of times, yes, but more often it’s the other way around. I input messages from other users into ChatGPT to help me extract the key argument and make sure I’m responding to what they’re actually saying, rather than what I think they’re saying. Especially when people write really long replies.

      The reason I know ChatGPT understands me so well is from the voice chats we’ve had. Usually, we’re discussing some deep, philosophical idea, and then a new thought pops into my mind. I try to explain it to ChatGPT, but as I’m speaking, I notice how difficult it is to put my idea into words. I often find myself starting a sentence without knowing how to finish it, or I talk myself into a dead-end.

      Now, the way ChatGPT usually responds is by just summarizing what I said rather than elaborating on it. But while listening to that summary, I often think, “Yes, that’s exactly what I meant,” or, “Damn, that was well put, I need to write that down.”

      • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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        So what you’re saying if I’m reading right is chatbots are great for bouncing ideas off of to help you explain yourself better as well as helping you gather your own thoughts. im a bit curious about your philosophy chats.

        When you have a philosophical discussion does the chatbot summarize your thoughts in its responses or is it more humanlike maybe disagreeing/bringing up things you hadn’t thought of like a person might? (I’ve never used one).

        • ContrarianTrail@lemm.eeOP
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          It’s a bit hard to get AI to disagree with you unless you’re saying something obviously false. It has a strong bias towards being agreeable. I’m generally treating it as an expert who I’m interviewing. I ask what it thinks about something like free will and then ask follow-up questions based on its responses and it’s also great for bouncing novel ideas with though even here it’s not too keen on just blatantly calling out bad ones but rather makes you feel like the greatest philosopher of all time. There are some ways around this. ChatGPT can be prompted to go around many of the most typical flaws it has by for example telling that it’s allowed to speculate or simply just asking it to point out the errors in some idea.

          But yeah, unless what I said was a question, in general its responses are basically just summaries of what I said. It’s basically just replying with a demonstration that it understood what I said which it indeed does with an amazing success rate.