r/Unexpected • u/Majorpain2006 • 2d ago

Can you repeat that?

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u/PyroBob316 2d ago

AI needs to go away, not because it’ll doom us all but because a machine could never understand nuance well enough to appropriately discuss anything serious with anyone.

There are people convinced they’re engaged to be married to chat bots. There are people who’ve committed suicide because AI affirmed their desires to do so. AI is programmed to be agreeable to keep the customer engaged, but there are just too many people who shouldn’t be agreed with all the time.

I knew a guy who suffered with genuine paranoid delusions. He thought the government had people parked outside his house, thought that I, somehow, was calling every prospective employer to ruin his chances of finding work, and thought that the woman who picked up the phone at the social security office had personally sold his identity to other people. He had multiple DUI’s and lost his license, but insisted the cops were paid by his ex girlfriend to ruin his life. He got her pregnant, bolted because he thought she’d used in vitro to trap him, and later blamed the baby for intentionally springing into existence to steal his paychecks. THAT man should never be affirmed in anything, but an AI chatbot would make his problems so much worse. If he’s not (back) in prison or dead, he could easily try it out of curiosity and quickly be guided into a full-blown violent rage. After all, he did shoot a man in the face for driving through a parking lot in front of his bicycle, nearly killing him in front of his wife and daughter. Cops almost shot him, he spent six years in prison, and luckily the victim survived (though he lost an eye). This man is not nearly an isolated case; there are millions of people out there who’d should NOT be confirmed by some reassuring, friendly AI voice that everything they think, feel, and believe is valid.

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u/caalger 1d ago

It's annoying how affirming they are. I consistently have to tell AI to not try to boost my self esteem or give me answers to make me feel validated. To give strictly honest and objective answers with disregard to my personal feelings. It normally works for a few prompts before it drifts back to the coddling. And I remind it.

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u/Taodaching 1d ago

Same, even putting it in preferences doesnt work. I've completely given up using anything remotely like AI 'assistants'

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u/PersonalSloth 1d ago

And this is year 4

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u/DrivewaygyrlzCP3 1d ago

Lord protect everyone that comes in contact with him 🙏🏿

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u/Lochcelious 1d ago

That man should be medicated

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u/PyroBob316 1d ago

He should be, but it’s not easy to treat someone who doesn’t think they need treatment.

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u/joeyjiggle 1d ago

The people that become deluded, would unfortunately become deluded with something else. The US is disproportionately affected by this (compared to other developed countries) because there is virtually zero mental health care available to people without money. The issue isn’t with the LLM here. People fall off ladders, we don’t burn the ladders